I've been researching PAFs and replicas for years
I'm curious... what other winders have you looked into and what are your thoughts on them?
PAFs are an interesting subject, I think. There are so many variables, but I'm not sure that isn't due to supply chain issues (magnets, wire, manufacturing tolerances, etc.), process improvements (winding machines, auto-stop and counter mechanisms, changing materials, etc.), and other things related to mass manufacturing a new component (humbuckers as opposed to P90s and earlier designs). Do all those things matter? I think so, but I don't think they were the result of quality control issues or sloppiness on Gibson's part.
So, between 4 or 5 different winding machines each with a different pattern resulting in different amounts of scatter, maybe 8 different magnets of varying composition and size, varying degrees of over or under winding, and varying degrees of coil offset due to every coil being at least somewhat different, there could easily be over 300 variations that all sound somewhat different.
However, there are some characteristics that are common, like the pronounced attack, "double tones," clarity, and "airiness" that, to me, aren't too different from the P90s that proceeded the humbucker. I've heard that that was one of the design parameters Ted McCarty gave to Seth Lover, to keep the "Gibson" sound but without the hum (if that's true, I have no idea).
Also, I don't believe that any came from the factory potted with wax or any other substance and this does make a difference in the sound. Unpotted pickups do have the ability to act as a microphone detecting the acoustic sound of the guitar in addition to electrically transducing the string vibrations and I can definitely hear the difference on my own guitars. I understand why people started potting pickups, but it does change the sound. Whether that's a desirable thing depends on the situation and the player.
So then, we're left with the broad differences between the original combinations... some are brighter, more/less mid-focused, higher/lower output, fuller, warmer... a many other somewhat subjective descriptions. And that's where it all comes down to personal opinion. What works for me on one guitar may not work for me on another, and may not work at all for anyone else. But, like we were saying about the video you posted earlier, having some comparative baseline goes a long way toward being able to judge what might work for a particular guitar or a particular player. That's also why I'm interested in everyone's opinion here, if something worked well for someone, it might work well for someone else.
If nothing else, PAFs (and pickups in general) are something I've been enjoying thinking about and researching for a long time, too!