We could be pickup tone bros.
Right now I have the venerable Duncan JB/Jazz in there - been that way for about 15 years. Prior to that, the best sounding pickups in this guitar were the Suhr Aldrich set and the Gibson 500T/496R combo. I can't say enough great things about the latter. I also had the Rio Grande BBQ bridge and Genuine TX at one point - that set made the guitar sound a mile wide but always bordered on a bit dark. The guitar shipped stock back in 1989 with the Lawrence designed "circuit board" pickups and honestly, those sounded really nice. But we all know how "upgrade-itus" goes 
I myself feel most at home with lower output pickups for the same reason, but still like them all. I feel a lot more nuances in playing can be brought out in them. My personal favorites have been '50's and '60's Gretsch, Guild, Baldwin, Hofner, Gibson Mini-Humbuckers, and DeArmond Gold Foil pickups. You will not find any pickups more nasty or snarly than those. They will make the other pickups guys talk about on this forum sound very polite/tame comparatively. I also myself have 2 Hermansson's, Friedman Marsha (with HBE/BE modes) among other amps
If you want to keep the pickups low to medium output per your above statement.....
I had that model Arcane as well as many other Arcane's. For a recent made pickup they were pretty decent, not anything amazing imo and with his lack of communication you'd have to pretty much find them used. For current made PAF types the Tone Specific Bloombucker (or Virgil Arlo) is by far the best I've tried and for vintage made alternatives to real PAF's the best I tried were the '70's Shaw and Japanese PAF copies
I think a lot of the T-top hate was the 300k; and sometimes 100k, pots that were in those guitars. My ‘80 Custom had 300k volumes and 100k tones and sounded like shit when I got it. I also felt I ‘couldn’t yank those T-tops out fast enough’ but before I did I changed to 500k pots and it sounded great.
I’ve had lots of different Arcane models and compared to other pickups in the same guitar they just weren’t as good as others I’ve in qualities like being tonally complex, organic or raw like the vintage pickups they’re trying to be like. The best I’ve tried for non-vintage paf style pickups have been Tone Specific and Virgil Arlo. Some guys I know who’ve tried both feel they’re better than Holmes or Ron Ellis. I’m lucky to have one real ‘50’s Gibson PAF (and many other good vintage pickups). It is quite special and 3D, but the Tone Specific Bloombucker for something current does a good overall capture of the sound, much better than the others I’ve had and I compared it in the same guitar I had the paf in. The ‘70’s Shaw and Japanese PAF’s I have also are imo excellent alternatives to PAF’s, much better than what’s available today IME
In my case I did controlled comparisons in a few of the same guitars (one of which being the ‘69 LPC it came stock in). It’s not that I think it’s actually a bad pickup, so much as there’s just many better sounding vintage pickups to me that also go for less money such as the Shaw PAF’s from the ‘70’s and some underrated ones too like the Hagstrom Humbuckers, Guild’s etc. They just aren’t the best sounding vintage pickups I’ve had, but certainly have that raw, organic sound you won’t hear in recent made pickups
He supposedly worked for Tom Holmes at one time from what I gather. I had a set of Triple Clones for a Les Paul I sold so I never installed them to actually hear them, it was easier to sell the set as new, but I wanted to hear what they were all about.
......because it's a sickness ya know.......
There is just a smidge of PAF clank and spank with my MM1400, but it's ceramic magnet just gives it that aggressive crunch, almost a fuzz like overtone on the distorted notes that let you know it's a high output pickup but still isn't as compressed with less mid emphasis as say a Duncan SH-5 Custom, which is mostly why I like it so much.
Hm I’ve gotten to compare 6 different real ‘50’s Gibson PAF’s in the same guitar (in 2 guitars), bought the one I liked most and didn’t hear anything clanky or spanky about them. I find them to be very round, sweet, fat, midrangey and bluesy and the good current made clones capture that part well I find. A lot of current made “paf style” pickups can sound that way like some by MCP, BKP, Wagner and others I’ve had, but IME they’re nothing like real ‘50’s Gibson PAF’s (not that it’s a good or bad thing)
Me too…after playing through them for about 6mos I would bet fantastic