I've only read the last two pages of this thread, but it seems not everyone understands the difference between RMS and peak numbers. And amp will never produce it's peak rating in the sense that people think it might.
When your subs hit hard, they aren't seeing that peak power level your amp is "rated for." At full tilt, your amp produces the rated RMS wattage (if it's a quality amp at least.) The peak rating is just a different way of measuring the wattage, measuring the total magnitude from maximum to minimum on the sine wave it produces. The RMS number is the magnitude from the zero point to one peak of the wave, half the peak number. That's why the peak rating is always double the RMS rating.
Reporting the peak number is just a marketing tool to make an amp sound more powerful to noobs.
Edit: You can't thermally blow a sub by underpowering it, unless the signal is clipped. And a sub won't automatically blow when sent a clipped signal; there still has to be enough power to overheat the voice coils. If you have a high power sub and send it low power, you can clip the bejesus out of it all day and not blow the sub.