This is definitely one of those no right answer/personal preference things. We do an exposed winch design on some of our other bumpers like this Sidekick/Tracker bumper we just completed:



The reason I didnt on the X was bec the grill sticks out so far.

With a standup intergrated solenoid, all that space is wasted under the grill and the bumper sticks out a good 4-5" further than it needs to. Look how tight the edge of the bumper is to the grill here:



To stand up a integrated solenoid winch in front of the grill, the bumper has to be moved out quite a bit. I didnt want to have it sticking out that much further than necessary.