This kind of “sacrificial” heat absorber is a great idea, just make sure that air bubbles that get trapped under it have places to exit (maybe a slight ^ v ^ v bend pattern with slits cut at the top of the ^'s?) such that you always have water beneath it to attenuate the plasma. The issue is, it doesn’t protect the seam/flange of the OEM 2 pan water table without making the water depth shallower there.
I followed in the footsteps of BD, making my own single volume pan from 16ga stainless with a single centralized drain. Made the side flanges as tall as permissible without raising the Y axis. I don’t do much work out in my garage during the blazing summers here in SE TX (because health things), so I wanted a way to reliably and quickly drain and refill my table for cleaning (and anti-sludge/algae/grossness reasons).
I’ve posted this in a couple different threads, but my reservoir / filter / pump system: