There's a lot of merit to your suggestion in that it would make the stapling much easier because you could have more material to grab onto when stretching it over the foam. My concern would be could the shop find some cover material that would be as good as the OEM cover in terms of durability and the non-slip aspect. The cover that I'll modify was on my buddy's bike for all of 2-3 rides and then he went with a Sargent and is really like new.