"Do those who have tugeye type holes use them as everyday painter locations or just for special situations like lining? Do you revert to the grab handles so you don't have to untie and retie for every portage?"

"As Preacher already mentioned, a bowline is great when stressed but that ease of untying makes it better suited for temporary situations like actually using the tugeye. It's not a tie it and forget it knot. What I think works better for painter to handle is a fixed loop used as a larks head. Easy on easy off and I find folding causes far less tangles than coiling."

I keep the painters on the boat until I'm done with the trip - if the boat has a tugey or if I've tied to the carry handle.  I've never bothered to do the bungee cord thru the deckplate thing - all I do is make a skein coil of the painter for portaging - a short coil, maybe 10" or so long, and it dangles from the bow maybe a foot or so (I don't use a painter on the stern for lake tripping).  So far, haven't had any issues with it catching on anything.

I have never had any of my bowline knots untie.  I agree that just a bowline can come undone easily, which is one of its better features, but I always have a tail long enough to tie a double fisherman's knot around the loop made by the bowline, as a safety/backup knot.  No way that will ever come undone til I want it to ( and I've tied it that way hundreds of times in climbing anchors, and the occasional use of a "bowline on  a coil" for a tie-in)