With the exception of the grossly thick bass, I tend to feel that the responsible path is to never remove wood from the plates just in an attempt to improve the bass. To assume that one has the knowledge and skill to make a poor sounding bass into a good one by irreversibly modifying it is immature at best; better to put the effort into repairing unserviceable basses or creating one of your own, and let time do what it will with the bass that doesn't sound so great by its nature. I'd rather generations of students abuse and ruin a lackluster bass in the course of learning than see the instrument butchered in search of a short-term "tone high".
And it's not just hungry luthiers who are to blame for this kind of butchery; I think way too many players are blaming the instrument for their own shortcomings, and that the majority should ask for little more than a bass with a proper setup. How many of us can honestly say that we get the most out of the instruments we have, anyway...
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