The Holy Grail Of Guitar Tones

According to Paul Reed Smith is a 1963 Fender Stratocaster!

Yep, at NAMM he was showing off the PRS Santana MD and McCarty II guitars, which are (gasp) active... They have a circuit called 'Mastering Voice Control' powered by a 9v battery, in fact the new McCarty has two. What gets me is that turn the circuit out on the Santana and the PRS is meant to have a '63 stratocaster tone (this is all in Guitarist magazine page 78).

Now what I don't get is why Paul has gotten obsessed with 1963 strats but he claims "55s, 59s, 60s, and 63s all sound different". Now as far as I can tell there was no major change in pickups except of course that being hand wound they were all individual. So no early sixties stratocaster sounds quite like another, certainly not the way modern production guarrantees a same guitar every time.

What I don't get is why I shouldn't just buy a Mexican strat, solder in a couple of Suhr Low Peaks or Fender 57-62s and get the holy grail sound for a fraction of the price of a PRS Santana...

Or am I missing something? Will I be struck down by God (Leo) for questioning the grail?