There's quite a bit to disassemble here in your post to get to the endpoint you want.
But you're reaching for it, for an idea, and I get where you're going, that's great.
For starters, and a good example out the gate:
Watch Andy Timmons' Rig Rundown on Premier Guitar (YT).
And his use of the Carl Martin compressor In Particular.
But you have to watch and listen Carefully to what he's saying.
His Entire Goal of using the comp is to get Exactly what you're describing.
Disregard any 'chicken-picken' super-squash references he makes, that doesn't apply here.
Point being, he can't 'get there' with pickups alone.
If he could, he would have sown the path for you, but he can't, so he found an alternative, workable solution, the comp.
He uses clean (DiMarzio DP187 Cruiser) pickups with a treble bleed on-board circuit.
To Maintain exactly what you want, a clean, nuanced, detailed tone.
But he needs the comp to take that tone the rest of the way (of where you want to go).
To maintain it, but pump it up to loud and proud levels without losing anything along the way.
The minute he goes into any level of dirt, the comp gets kicked OFF.
You mention a boost circuit, then boosted passives, but no details.
I've been building hybridized passive>(boosted) active circuits on my own custom builds for nearly 30 years now.
I use whatever passive pickups I want into EMG active onboard products.
So I have a lot of experience with on-board boosted circuits (at least EMG anyway).
But I'm very unclear where YOU'RE going with it, with the 'boosted' part of your post.
In my experience, I tend to stay away from ceramic double coil HB pickups if I'm doing an active guitar.
They don't seem to get along too well.
I've taken a ceramic magged HB and swapped the mag Out (into an active guitar) for something alnico and it calmed everything down nicely.
But I have also used ceramic SC HB's (like Bardens) that work fine in active (boosted) circuits.
So now, let's just get rid of the entire 'active' part of the conversation.
If you want to circle back around to it and ask more about active (boosted, boosters, pre-amps) situations, absolutely go ahead.
"Logically it would make sense that taking the clear, nuanced output of a low output pickup and then boosting it would result in a much more nuanced end result"
Well, really, that is what Barden pickups are all about, exactly that.
Very clean, very defined and nuanced, and pretty loud, using ceramic magnets to boost a low wind.
So for that, the answer has already been formulated more or less, that is what a Barden pickup is designed around.
So YT their full-sized pickups, it is pretty much what you're describing.
They also wire their HB's in parallel, not series, which adds to their 'nuanced' tonal recipe.
"Than simply having a huge magnet/overwound pickup.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I've never liked super high output pickups to begin with.
If I wanted to try this out, have any of you guys swapped out vintage pickups' magnets for ceramic?
My goal is to get something in that 'vintage hot' range output wise, balanced with lots of detail."
I believe Joe Barden had some affiliation with Bill Lawrence somewhere along the way.
Bill Lawrence being the mentor, Joe Barden being the apprentice.
I'm a huge fan of (original) Bill Lawrence pickups of all shapes sizes and have a drawerful of them.
If you're looking for that 'hot but clean' thing, I would recommend you try some Lawrence L-500 varieties.
Now wound by his wife and daughter as old Bill has passed away (Wilde Pickups).
It would be the L500 that's wound to 8K or so, can't remember the exact model for that.
But even their higher output L500's remain clear and articulate, that's one thing they're known for in the first place.
But that's the sound you're describing, a pretty typical Lawrence L500 HB.
Since I have a drawerful of them (Lawrence's) sitting here, I don't need to make 'that' pickup recipe.
I typically go the other way, I am usually removing ceramics for some other magnet option on my DiMarzios and Duncans.
For some reason, even my higher output Lawrences work fantastic with my active EMG harnesses, where others (using ceramics) sound horrible.
Can't tell you why, but sonically, it's obvious.
This is an old build, 'Trail Boss', using a late 70's Lawrence L500 in the bridge and one of his 'sidewinder' designs in the neck.
With my typical full compliment active harness.
Top row front to back: passive volume, passive tone, EMG Afterburner pre-amp (pull to activate)
Bottom Row: EMG EXG tone pot, EMG SPC tone pot.
