diff --git a/changelog/v0.21.0/dev-logging.yaml b/changelog/v0.21.0/dev-logging.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6bb9568c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/v0.21.0/dev-logging.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+changelog:
+  - type: BREAKING_CHANGE
+    description: >
+      Change Logging options to be more clear. This will only affect bootstrap.Start() and
+      bootstrap.StartMulti() functions.
+    issueLink: https://github.com/solo-io/skv2/issues/304
diff --git a/pkg/bootstrap/bootstrap.go b/pkg/bootstrap/bootstrap.go
index 34ec0f65f..ea9a5cf01 100644
--- a/pkg/bootstrap/bootstrap.go
+++ b/pkg/bootstrap/bootstrap.go
@@ -65,8 +65,9 @@ type Options struct {
 	// enables verbose mode
 	VerboseMode bool
 
-	// enables json logger (instead of table logger)
-	JSONLogger bool
+	// enables dev logger (instead of prod logger)
+	// NOTE: DO NOT set this to true in Prod, it will crash on DPanic
+	DevLogger bool
 
 	// ManagementContext if specified read the KubeConfig for the management cluster from this context. Only applies when running out of cluster.
 	ManagementContext string
@@ -83,6 +84,11 @@ func (opts *Options) AddToFlags(flags *pflag.FlagSet) {
 	flags.StringVar(&opts.ManagementContext, "context", "", "If specified, use this context from the selected KubeConfig to connect to the local (management) cluster.")
 	flags.StringVar(&opts.SettingsRef.Name, "settings-name", opts.SettingsRef.Name, "The name of the Settings object this controller should use.")
 	flags.StringVar(&opts.SettingsRef.Namespace, "settings-namespace", opts.SettingsRef.Namespace, "The namespace of the Settings object this controller should use.")
+
+	// This flag disables prod mode when set to false, in other words setting debug to true,
+	// Which will cause the app to panic on DPanic.
+	flags.BoolVar(&opts.DevLogger, "dev-logger", false, "Default: false. Set this value to true to enable debug panic logs for development.")
+	flags.MarkHidden("dev-logger")
 }
 
 // Start a controller with the given start func. The StartFunc will be called with a bootstrapped local manager. If localMode is false, the StartParameters will include initialized multicluster components.
@@ -92,7 +98,7 @@ func Start(ctx context.Context, start StartFunc, opts Options, schemes runtime.S
 
 // Like Start, but runs multiple StartFuncs concurrently
 func StartMulti(ctx context.Context, startFuncs map[string]StartFunc, opts Options, schemes runtime.SchemeBuilder, localMode bool, addStatsHandlers ...func(mux *http.ServeMux, profiles map[string]string)) error {
-	setupLogging(opts.VerboseMode, opts.JSONLogger)
+	setupLogging(opts.VerboseMode, opts.DevLogger)
 
 	mgr, err := makeMasterManager(opts, schemes)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -191,7 +197,7 @@ func makeMasterManager(opts Options, schemes runtime.SchemeBuilder) (manager.Man
 	return mgr, nil
 }
 
-func setupLogging(verboseMode, jsonLogging bool) {
+func setupLogging(verboseMode, devLogging bool) {
 	level := zapcore.InfoLevel
 	if verboseMode {
 		level = zapcore.DebugLevel
@@ -200,7 +206,7 @@ func setupLogging(verboseMode, jsonLogging bool) {
 	zapOpts := []zaputil.Opts{
 		zaputil.Level(&atomicLevel),
 	}
-	if !jsonLogging {
+	if devLogging {
 		zapOpts = append(zapOpts,
 			// Only set debug mode if specified. This will use a non-json (human readable) encoder which makes it impossible
 			// to use any json parsing tools for the log. Should only be enabled explicitly
diff --git a/pkg/ezkube/object_ref.go b/pkg/ezkube/object_ref.go
index 150b08257..715935722 100644
--- a/pkg/ezkube/object_ref.go
+++ b/pkg/ezkube/object_ref.go
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ import (
 )
 
 func MakeObjectRef(resource ResourceId) *v1.ObjectRef {
+	if resource == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
 	return &v1.ObjectRef{
 		Name:      resource.GetName(),
 		Namespace: resource.GetNamespace(),
@@ -13,6 +16,9 @@ func MakeObjectRef(resource ResourceId) *v1.ObjectRef {
 }
 
 func MakeClusterObjectRef(resource ClusterResourceId) *v1.ClusterObjectRef {
+	if resource == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
 	return &v1.ClusterObjectRef{
 		Name:        resource.GetName(),
 		Namespace:   resource.GetNamespace(),
@@ -21,17 +27,28 @@ func MakeClusterObjectRef(resource ClusterResourceId) *v1.ClusterObjectRef {
 }
 
 func RefsMatch(ref1, ref2 ResourceId) bool {
+	// If either ref is nil, return true if they are both nil
+	if ref1 == nil || ref2 == nil {
+		return ref1 == nil && ref2 == nil
+	}
 	return ref1.GetNamespace() == ref2.GetNamespace() &&
 		ref1.GetName() == ref2.GetName()
 }
 
 func ClusterRefsMatch(ref1, ref2 ClusterResourceId) bool {
+	// If either ref is nil, return true if they are both nil
+	if ref1 == nil || ref2 == nil {
+		return ref1 == nil && ref2 == nil
+	}
 	return ref1.GetNamespace() == ref2.GetNamespace() &&
 		ref1.GetName() == ref2.GetName() &&
 		ref1.GetClusterName() == ref2.GetClusterName()
 }
 
 func MakeClientObjectKey(ref ResourceId) client.ObjectKey {
+	if ref == nil {
+		return client.ObjectKey{}
+	}
 	return client.ObjectKey{
 		Namespace: ref.GetNamespace(),
 		Name:      ref.GetName(),