a truly well designed system should give you a cleaner and cooler/direct airstream for the motor. Back in the carb days when they did it the air went straight down into the motor with no turns at all. With the system I have seen they tend to take the fresh cold air and then direct it (after a sharp) right across the top of the hood which would be the hottest part of the engine bay and then it turns and goes down and either does another sharp turn or a 180 to feed into the stock intake. I cant help but think that with all the turns and being so high in the bay that while it looks cool that there has to be ways that would net more power.
But now realistically your intake is a good starting point to try and free up some restrictions going into the motor but you will not see any one intake that will align the planets while causing spontaneous world piece and suddenly creating a black hole inside the intake that will cause a hp gain of infinity. There are differences between them but its not something that you will put on the car and immediately notice a difference in the car unless its caused by a lighter wallet. Sounds like you are trying to balance between the form of the car and the function of the motor which is always hard for us. Do what you want and there should not be an issue.