Dual quads versus big hammer!!!...
I think the big difference in this analogy is this isn't a boat! LOL
The cars a tad bit snappier and the RPM's don't take long to move upwards...
Maybe, but boats have more load on them more of the time which is what
@PRH is getting at. Cars are only producing major power (and thus major airflow) while accelerating.
If you just snap the throttle open and free-rev it, the air demand is not the same as when you mash the gas with a load on the engine. An accelerating engine (no load) will ramp-up air demand more quickly as revs pile on fast and the air column speeds up quickly. An engine at low revs but with lots of load will not, because it's not accelerating and the higher cylinder pressures will increase internal EGR/reversion there can be problems with mixture not reaching the cylinders - AKA "bog". The air doors not opening aren't necessarily a cause but a symptom. Once the engine has more air demand it'll probably help pick up and take off.
In the case of the 409 with the drilled holes, that may have been the result of the primaries being too small to adequately fill the engine and so the air demand remained low at lower revs and wasn't helping to open the air doors. You may be running into some of that, but it's hard to say without the engine being on a dyno (high load) or without knowing exactly what your symptom is (which is why the pros lament not being able to BE there) because a 'bog' is pretty vauge. Putting holes in the air doors may help, may not, worth a try either way though. It may even turn out that the air doors aren't in play with the 'bog' but are an entirely separate issue that would show up more at the track or on the dyno than when mash the gas from slow roll.
The more things that get tried, the more evidence there will be for a particular solution, so keep tweaking at it. It'll be interesting no matter what.