John did say in the first post that the chrome was still available on the Skylines at an upcharge.
I don't think they look good, but I don't see how you can say they look like Chinese MM knockoffs. They look smaller than MM pickups and most MM copies I've seen have exposed polepieces like the originals -- except for Barts and EMGs, but those aren't cheap Chinese knockoffs.
The Skylines are very expensive for Korean basses. They're not competitive and obviously they haven't sold enough of them on reputation alone. Too bad they changed the classic style by doing this, but I understand that they have to cut costs somehow.