I still prefer Beethoven to Sting, so I bring a bit of personal bias to the table when people try to make shotguns look like cars or toasters. The grip inserts seemed to work OK, but do does wood checkering. Surely, the synthetic will be a bit more resistant to dings and whacks than the wood. If you think that's a fair trade off for the way it looks, then do it. Of course, the synthetic stock is a bit harder to alter if you can't get enough movement out of the shim set when you adjust the stock.
Wood is pretty easy to hack and patch.