outta curiosity do you prefer the vintage 7.25 necks? Cause if you don't like a 9.25 neck your just screwing yourself in the long run and its gonna be wasted money to replace it ON TOP of the fact your probably gonna get BKP's as well.
If its simply about the neck (again not sure if you prefer vintage or not) you could always get the classic 60's which are half the price, swap in some bkp's and they'll sound twice as good.
No I prefer flatter like my Les Pauls have. The Pearls is a bit more rounded than the Epiphones. I have no idea what measurements they are though, I guess the Pearls about 10" and Epiphone about 12"? Neither were as flat as my Charvels which was 16".
I had a 7.25" neck for a while but I found it made bends too much of an effort! Put a 9.25" on and it was better. Ended up selling that strat as I could never get it to play how I wanted it to! Looking back/knowing how much a good fret dress and setup works now, I think thats probably all it needed.