The original pickup positioning ... learning from design mistakes is overrated.
A third pup smack-dab in the middle - there sure is enough room for it on
this instrument! - might work wonders and keep those people happy who want the original pup positioning for treble and bass.
I have an early 80ies one I believe, shortly before they stopped making them. The sound of it is neither as great as legend might have it nor as bad as conventional wisdom seems to indicate. If you're fine with a bass that doesn't have the strongest cut-thru-mids, then you can get it to sound good, if somewhat scooped, with some tweaking. But it's not an automatic signature sound like, say, a 4001/4003.
Still, I'm happy to see it return to production, it has always looked great.