I did something similar with water ripples using the Glowforge. I might have used a better choice of wood but yours shows the problems I discovered with CNC. I was wondering if one might rough down with the CNC and do a final cut with the Glowforge so there would not be tool marks, that way you could do the CNC with large fast tools at very much faster, and the final cuts with the laser with far finer and greater detail than the CNC.
The CNC being able to ignore the waves to cut to the inlay level would be a really big plus, I have several pieces of failed deep engraves I would be able to recover if I could do that and not a few that could use ordinary resurfacing,
A gorgeous piece he will be proud to display I am sure.