I think one thing that worked about your original is that you could listen together or as separates, where a lot of these concepts seem to eliminate the ability to listen to them when put together. I think a lot of them are adaptable if you switched the materials.
One thing that did not work on the original was the discrete grille. It is too much the way an engineer would thing, the driver is here so this is where the grille is. Try making that grille go all the way around. Conversely, putting my engineering hat on, with that solution having a round design doesn’t make sense because so much acoustic volume is wasted in the arcing grille.