Well, there's only so much room between the 24th fret and the bridge; thus to allow easy left hand access to the 24th fret, the bridge has to be where it is on the body. With the large pickup shells, the short scale length, the truss rod cover, and maximum separation of the pickups, the bridge has to be close to the pickup. That closeness will give the bridge pickup a cleaner view of the strings than it would if the pickup was moved forward toward the neck.