Personally, I'd build it as-is.
Was mentioned before - this is more of a legacy kit now. A marker point in the history of the hobby and the subject, and an indication of how far we've come. For what it's worth, it is - at least a bit, and dare I say - historical...
I agree.
An OOB build suits this one best, I think. It's a very cool model. Once you start making it 'correct', you'll have to change pretty much everything to make it work. As is, it's a nice model.