It seems that maybe for this and other DMD style directb2s backglasses (for this generation of pin and others with similar proportions) that giving this grill area a little more head room would help get closer to the real BG grill to translite ratios. This would help the 2 screen users while really not impacting the 3 screen users that much because it get's stretched out anyway when they use it. So, maybe in future giving the grill a higher defined space in the editor / directb2s release would be ideal as the 2 screen users cannot stretch it up more into the graphic area after the fact but the 3 screen systems / users can simply stretch and push the grill off the screen regardless of how high it's boundary was defined.
What resolution are you running your backglass monitor?
I hear your point, but I just wonder with most people seeming to have 16:10 or 16:9 monitors for the backglass it seems like you'd sacrifice an awful lot of the actual art (let alone interactive space with the spider in this case) just to fill it up with "dead" black speaker grill.
One option might be to lose a bit of authenticity (we're already tossing it out the window somewhat with these aspect ratios) and cheating the DMD opening on the grill larger, so that you had more space to enlarge the pinMAME display.
If you could take a pic of your setup so I could see how it looks that might help.
I use a 5:4 (1280x1024) backglass set-up. One thing I was assuming, quite possibly incorrectly, was that most two screen users were either 4:3, 5:4, or even rotated LCDs / TV backglasses. I know I've seen 16:10 / 16:9 backglasses for two screen set-ups and there must still be a reasonable following due to monitor size limitations in the 4:3 and 5:4 market (limiting to really almost only mini-cabs of which I’m an owner). So, with 16:10 / 16:9 2 screen set-ups, in those cases, compressing the grill does make more sense. But really a lot of this ideal proportion element and discussion would depend, I suppose, on what actually is the majority distribution / complexion of the two screen user base.
However, if the 2 screen user base was more made up of 4:3, 5:4, or more squarish set-ups and the 3 screen users using backglasses LCD of 16:10 or 16:9 (with separate Grill and DMD area), it would still seem reasonable to try and fit the height of the translite design for a directb2s into an area about 10/16 or 5/8ths of the height of the designer and make the grill the rest. Most real backglasses and their enclosures for pinball tables or almost totally square and, from what I’ve summarily researched somewhere around 28-32 inches wide / tall. This is also based on what I thought people had reported regarding 3 screen set-ups with a 16:10 backglass LCD monitor (something like a 26 or 27) being a great choice for fit and shape. That would support a grilled directb2s designed for around 10/16 area for the translite graphic with a 6 /16 grill area as the translite area would stretch out for no grill / 3 screen set-ups but really only “stretch” out to fit a 16:10 monitor and hence be back at the designed height proportions. The new directb2s designer is not aspect ratio specific from my preliminary tests and importing an image of a square dimension (1280x1280) gives one the ability to work with a more realistic backglass dimension (translite and grill area considered) and possibly provide the best of both worlds for both 3 screen users and 2 sceeners considering the above.
But lastly, yes, cheating the grill area somewhat may still be a decent / easy choice and I had thought the same thing and even created a version in PS the first night this was released (along with help from Herweh and his designer). It’s done where more of the dead space (wood) above and below the speakers has been cut out of the grill section and the main area, including speaker graphics and DMD bezel, enlarged into - the nice Bally logo is getting almost pushed right off the screen though 
This does get pretty tight still and another 80-100 pixels could really help to work in that area. I agree in general, however, as we are indeed still working with not completely square virtual backglass displays (2 screen at least and 5:4 at best) and that other compromises are already occurring so modifying the grill dmd / speaker area to cheat a bit could still be a reasonable way to go. Here is my example of this approach:
Scared Stiff Dark Final Edited (from directb2s export).png 1.86MB
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