For me, it's all about the bridge pickup. Throw whatever you want in the neck and middle positions, but a Tele with a bucker in the bridge...well, what's the point?
Throw the right sc-sized humbucker in there wired for splitting and you have like 90% of the same basic tele tone plus the ability to go noiseless and fatten up the sound.
I seriously doubt many people could actually tell the difference; I definitely can't.