Sharing my thoughts based on my experience with the Dimarzio Area as well as Dimarzio Dual Rail series of pickups in my Strat guitar.
Note that I am using 500k value pots, where a 0.022uf value cap is being used by both tone controls. The upper tone control is active in the circuit for pickup selector switch Positions 2-5, and the lower tone control is only active in Position 1 (bridge pickup only). The guitar body wood is poplar, not the more typical alder or ash, so the different tone that poplar has vs ash, alder, etc could be driving some of the differences i hear with these pickups compared to other people's experiences with these pickups. Neck and fretboard are typical maple shaftwood with rosewood fretboard.
I currently have and like 58s in the neck and middle positions. I've tried the 67 in both the neck and middle positions but feel the 67 is just a tad too bright in the middle, and in the neck position, I didn't perceive a difference in how it sounded there compared to the 58 there for Position 5 (neck only). However, for Postion 4 (neck / middle) the Area 67 in the neck combined with the middle 58, lost some of quack characterstic that i like in my Position 4 tone compared to the 58 being in both positions, so that is why I returned the 2nd 58 to the neck position. The one small reservation I have about the 58 in the neck position, is that the Neck only tone (Position 5) is a little darker than I'd like, but I am going to try a mod where a capacitor is added in series to the neck pickup lead wire, which reduces some of the bass frequencies from the pickup's tone. That kind of mod is called Artie's De-Mud Mod, by the way. You can find more info about it online by searching by that name.
I love the Area 58 in the middle position. I really like how it sounds for middle pickup only tone (Position 3) but also how it seems to add the most quack to the Position 4 and Position 2 tones (middle/bridge)
I tried the 61 in the neck and middle but it was too thick and dark for my tastes.
I tried a LOT of pickups in the bridge position besides the 61 that is currently installed there, including Dimarzio Dual Rail designs like the Super Distortion S and the Pro Track. The reason I tried to find a replacement for the 61 in the bridge is that while I really like how the 61 creates quack in Position 2, its a little too thin and shrill when it is used on its own (Position 1) when i am playing w gain/drive. Before someone asks, yes I tried turning down the tone control for the bridge pickup, and that did help w the shrillness, but that didn't help with the thin tone problem. While both the Pro Track and Super Distortion S solved the thin/shrill tone complaint, i felt the tone of the Super Distortion S was too "grainy" (hard to explain, but I think certain mid frequencies are too boosted in that pickup) and the Pro Track sounded great with gain BUT i lost too much Position 2 quack tone when played clean. I did experiment w parallel and split coil wiring on both pickups to see if one of those 2 methods would resolve that problem, but it didn't. So the 61 went back into the bridge.
A couple days ago I ordered a Dimarzio Virtual Solo stacked singlecoil that is supposed to sound thicker than the 61 without the shrillness and still retain the quack tone in Position 2. So I am going to try replacing the area 61 in the bridge position one more time soon and see if find joy. I can post an update in a few days after I give that a try.
By the way, using these Posilock Products brand wireless connectors make pickup swaps much quicker and cleaner than resoldering every time. Besides using them to connect each pickup to the 5 way switch, I also installed two on the hot and ground wires coming into the cavity from the output jack, so its also easy and quick to get the pickguard detached from the guitar once strings are loosened and the pickguard slid out of position and flipped over.
Once I settle on which pickup I am going to keep in the bridge position, I will then replace all the wireless connectors in this guitar with properly soldered connections, and then reuse these wireless connectors on other guitars i own that I want to try different pickups in.
