I was kind of going for the look you see on some of the older (60's) musclecars that had padded rollbars.
I was thinking along the line of safer as in the point of support is directly over and behind the driver and passenger, rather than a few feet further back.
Yeah...have to admit...looks a lot better than the cheapo padding I just cut and slapped around mine. You did a really nice job of preserving interior look and function too.