>"Besides, even with a string perfecly aligned over the pole pieces, you don't notice a drop in volume when you bend a note."

IME, that's not always true, but there's not much one can do about it. For bridge pickups, it's not a severe problem, but bending can cause a significant volume loss on the neck pickup.

Most often, height adjustment can be tweaked such that the problem goes away. Another good solution are rail pickups.

Anyways, my personal problem with misalignment is that it bothers me visually...I just don't like it. :)
Let the thunder roll and the lightning flash, I'm doing alright for country trash.