I still stand by my "nothing looks more like real wood than real wood" comment... it holds true most of the time. But in this particular case–trying to replicate burled wood–using actual burled wood would probably: A. Looked out of scale, B. Been tough to work with (compared to clear basswood, for example), and C. Required a ton of sealing/lacquering/polishing, etc. until it was glass smooth and absolutely no grain shows. Sure you could have used real wood, but given the end result you were after in this case, "cutting corners" was definitely the way to go here.
So in this particular application, your technique is the way to go. For the floorboards you did, real wood was the way to go, because basswood has almost no visible grain and can be stained and weathered to look like almost any other wood (except burled wood, obviously!). And I use real wood for the firewall/dash on my brass-era cars, again because the real wood (basswood that I stain and varnish) looks "right" to me at that scale (1/16).
When I finally get around to doing my 1/8 Rolls woody, I'll be using real wood. Structural pieces for the framework, and sheet/veneer for the panels. All basswood, stained and varnished to look like maple and mahogany (both of which don't have a strong grain pattern in real life).