Gibson has been increasing prices steadily over the past 10 years or so. Back in the vintage era, there were basically three models of Les Pauls – the Custom, the Standard, and the Special (the Junior is a single-pickup version of the Special). Now, there’s a crazy array of different models, and keeping them straight is a guitarist’s (and marketer’s) nightmare – the Standard, which is the most popular, has been changed drastically, and the closest to a tradition LP Standard is now called a Traditional.
Gibson does offer single coil pickups – the P-90, which is available on the Les Paul. The best known users of guitars with the P-90s are of course The Beatles, on their Epiphone Casino guitars they started using in 1966.
It’s a question of dialing in your sound with your amplifier more than the pickups – the 1965 Fender Deluxe Reverb reissue is a good choice for working musicians. My $0.02….