A few imho (minor) gripes with the Excel 20

Since buying the Excel 20 a week ago, I did a few cooks on it and I am beginning to love it, anyway much more than my (meanwhile sold) WSM. Excel(lent) smoker and grill.
I only have 2 minor gripes and I was wondering if I am the only one.
1) It is very difficult to lift the waterpan from the stacker because it is so big. I hardly can get my hands between the pan and the stacker. Because I don't use water until now (clay saucer instead) and I sometimes want to switch between (indirect) smoking and (direct) grilling, I would like to be able to remove the waterpan when it is still hot and of course with oven mitts, but that is very difficult.
2) Tonight I wanted to use my newly bought Maverick ET-73 with the Excel 20 with one stacker. The Maverick works like a charm, but having only one eyelet for the probe, I had to pass the food probe between stacker and lid or the top vent. It would be nice if there were 2 eyelets per stacker.

Why don't you just thread both probes through one eyelet, one at a time, or is the hole to small to carry both cables?
This is a mod i did to my Frontier.

https://s288.photobucket.com/albums/ll163/novicebucket/?action=view&current=DSCF0936.jpg

The eyelet is not too small for both cables, but once that one cable runs through it, it is too small to get the other probe through it.
Of course I could drill out the eyelet, but I cannot judge how thick the metal is. Is there enough metal to remove without removing the eyelet itself ? (I hope that you know what I mean).