Curious, I did use --install and it built the installer dmg. I just scrolled back to the messages. Here were the applicable lines in the verbose printout.
mkdir -p dstroot/Panda3D/Panda3D.mpkg/Contents/Packages/
mkdir -p dstroot/Panda3D/Panda3D.mpkg/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/
/Developer/usr/bin/packagemaker --info /tmp/Info_plist --version 1.8.0 --out dstroot/Panda3D/Panda3D.mpkg/Contents/Packages/base.pkg --target 10.4 --domain system --root dstroot/base/ --no-relocate --scripts dstroot/scripts/base
/Developer/usr/bin/packagemaker --info /tmp/Info_plist --version 1.8.0 --out dstroot/Panda3D/Panda3D.mpkg/Contents/Packages/tools.pkg --target 10.4 --domain system --root dstroot/tools/ --no-relocate
/Developer/usr/bin/packagemaker --info /tmp/Info_plist --version 1.8.0 --out dstroot/Panda3D/Panda3D.mpkg/Contents/Packages/headers.pkg --target 10.4 --domain system --root dstroot/headers/ --no-relocate
/Developer/usr/bin/packagemaker --info /tmp/Info_plist --version 1.8.0 --out dstroot/Panda3D/Panda3D.mpkg/Contents/Packages/uninstall16.pkg --target 10.4 --domain system --root dstroot/uninstall16/ --no-relocate --scripts dstroot/scripts/uninstall16
/Developer/usr/bin/packagemaker --info /tmp/Info_plist --version 1.8.0 --out dstroot/Panda3D/Panda3D.mpkg/Contents/Packages/pythoncode.pkg --target 10.4 --domain system --root dstroot/pythoncode/ --no-relocate
/Developer/usr/bin/packagemaker --info /tmp/Info_plist --version 1.8.0 --out dstroot/Panda3D/Panda3D.mpkg/Contents/Packages/samples.pkg --target 10.4 --domain system --root dstroot/samples/ --no-relocate
rm -f /tmp/Info_plist
hdiutil create Panda3D-rw.dmg -srcfolder dstroot/Panda3DI forced the links as follows:
ln -s /Developer/Panda3D/lib/libavcodec.dylib /usr/local/lib/libavcodec.dylib
ln -s /Developer/Panda3D/lib/libavutil.dylib /usr/local/lib/libavutil.dylib
ln -s /Developer/Panda3D/lib/libswscale.dylib /usr/local/lib/libswscale.dylib
ln -s /Developer/Panda3D/lib/libfftw.2.dylib /usr/local/lib/libfftw.2.dylib
ln -s /Developer/Panda3D/lib/librfftw.2.dylib /usr/local/lib/librfftw.2.dylibAfter that, all worked correctly.
Ok, I think I just figured it out. I must have run some portion of the build as root (I don’t use sudo and may have had to use root to move the macports out of path, forgot to exit), the creation of some links must have been stopped by permissions. The libraries in question are owned by root while the vast majority of panda libraries are owned by my username. They were all created within 4 minutes of one another so I’m not sure how I ended up doing that. I’m also not clear on the importance of /usr/local since that’s unusual on OSX. But it all works. I have written a procedure if anyone else needs it.
I am curious on how it would be possible to use the wrong option and still build the installer 
. But since it worked… I’m not too curious .
Thanks for all the help. Others please don’t hesitate to pm or ask if you want the step-by-step I used.