Black cherry is rather soft, and will easily be dented.

I have seen black cherry tables dented by writing on a single sheet of paper on the table using a ball point pen.

You could read the written message on the wood until the whole top was sanded and refinished.

No flooring hardwoods are softer than American cherry and walnut. If your looking for durability it's a poor choice. If you have a dog of any size claw indentations will be everywhere. In a kitchen dropped items will leave their mark. Amer. cherry darkens a lot.
All that said its very beautiful and in the right setting a terrific choice.
What are your designers objections to a floating floor? A quality floating product installed correctly is the right choice for your radiant heat.

I'd like to revive this post with a few more questions, please.

My flooring guy (I'm a handyman) just refinished American Cherry floors in a house we're working on, and it was finished "natural" with Bona products. He was hired directly by the homeowner so I'm just a spectator in this dispute. The owners are unhappy with the new natural color of the floor. He says he tried to explain that it would be lighter, and that it would eventually darken over time but they seem to have forgotten that part. Add to it that they are finished in a flat finish and the owners think the work looks incomplete. To try to please them, he is switching to another product for the final coat to try to add some gloss and tone.

What do you think of all this? I don't know enough about this wood, but the guy's been doing floors for 30 years and I think he does quality work. Move-in day is tomorrow and there's no redoing them.

BTW, the old floors were really scratched up with dog marks. He was using some sort of hardener (urethane, maybe?) in the Bona finish. But he's ticked that he has to switch to another lesser-grade product for the final coat to try and add that tone/gloss. (It's another water-based product, but I don't know which one.

Thanks.

It does not matter how hard the finish is over a softer wood.
At will still dent.

I can't view the job site, so take the following comment with a grain of salt.

Unless an oil base stain in a natural color or a sealer is used, one that is designed to add some kind of darkening when applied, a waterborne finished floor will look sort of 'dead' when completed. There is nothing wrong with a 'flat finish' if that is the look you want.

The hardener used in the finish relates to the durability of the finish itself. It does nothing to harden the wood at all. As brickeye said, "It does not matter how hard the finish is over a softer wood.
It will still dent."