Panels - Large cuts or glue them up?

As I mentioned several times, m fairly new to woodworking. My father is fairly skilled and is a trained finish carpenter, although hasn’t practiced in about 25 years. His advise to me was always rip down stock into smallish (3 to 4 inch) sections and glue them up for panels. I am in the process of making some end tables that kind of match the style of my crappy coffee table project. The legs will be two panels about 8” wide. Since this is pine, I am worried about dimensional stability over time. I have some 12” wide boards with very slight cupping I can work out with a plane. Should I cut those to length, or rip them down and glue them up, alternating grain direction?

The “crappy coffee table” legs are glued because I didn’t have stock wide enough.

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