NP, in my opinion the aardvark is essential gear for brooks enthusiasts who are also hardcore commuters. It makes your saddle as low maintenance as a plastic one in bad weather, but you have the option to pull it off and get that breathability back as soon as things dry up.

Hooters, get a leather punch to make the holes. You can do it with a drill but it doesn't work anywhere near as well---the drill tends to rip out a hole and the punch neatly cuts one out. There are no rules on how to do it, but I used vernier calipers to score a light line about 12mm from the edge of my saddle, following the edge. Then I marked out holes on one side about 12mm apart, again scratching with the calipers, and punched em out. The calipers made it easy to match the holes I had punched on the opposite side of the saddle.