I'm putting together doors for shaker kitchen cabinets. The panels are
roughly 11x21. The original plan was to resaw and bookmatch some 6"
wide cherry. I wanted 1/2" thick panels with a 1/4" rabet all around
to go into the doors. The raised panel would be on the backside of the
door leaving a flat front.

I jointed one side of the boards flat and one edge square. After
resawing, both pieces bowed much more than I expected. These were then
jointed and planed flat and then glued together to get the 11" wide
panles. Due to the warping, some pairs of boards turned out thinner
than others once they were machined flat again.

Since there was no way to get all 7 panels near 1/2" thickness, I'm
thinking about taking them all down to 1/4" and skipping the raised
panel. I did this to one board as a test and it looks good. But I'm
worried about 1/4" solid panels warping in the future.

Is this going to be a problem? If I do it again, I'm not going to
resaw and bookmatch. Instead I will just match boards as best as I can
and go for the full 1/2" thickness. I'm kind of new to panels in
doors, is 1/4" that much more likely to warp than 1/2"? Should I just
get 1/4" cherry veneered mdf and go with that?