'57's are way overpriced, like all Gibson pickups. Unfortunately some players think they're getting 'an actual Gibson '57 Classic PAF humbucker' that's somehow like the original 1950's PAF's. There are other pickup makers crafting closer replicas of 1950's PAF's than Gibson. Remember: Gibson is a guitar company; pickups aren't a priority. They make them so they can save some money instead of buying them from someone else. Their aftermarket pickup sales are minimal, certainly not driving the company's cash flow. With aftermarket pickup companies, that's all they do. They can't stay in business if their products can't beat Fender and Gibson pickups in tone quality.
One of the members (possibly Kojak) had said here the specs on '57 Classics have been changed by Gibson 5 times over the years, so what you hear on some guitars and what you actually get can be a moving target.
I'm a big PAF fan, and '57's are the one PAF I don't care for (I've had several sets come in guitars I bought -I pulled and sold all of them). To my ears they're on the muddy side, and the high-end can have a weird 'ribbony' sound. For the price of these in the boutique range, you can get much better sounding PAF's from Duncan (Seth, WLH, etc), Lollar, Fralin, Bare Knuckles, ThroBak, etc. Gibson has no desire to spend the time & resources competing with these aftermarket companies. If they can equal what those companies produce, Gibson won't be able to sell many more pickups than they do now. Not much of an upside. Maybe they wouldn't be able to break even to cover the added investment. If they can't equal those companies, then they just look foolish. Best for them not to get into the fray. They can't compete with the decades of experience of people like Seymour Duncan. So Gibson makes good pickups for their guitars, not the best, but good enough. If you want better, there's a number to choose from today.
