Yes the real thing is supposed to have an open case back. I don't think he is looking for an accurate rep thought, this particular one has way too many tells.
Poor dial, poor CG, ... TBH you'd be better advised buying a new one, it's a waste of time/money trying to mod that one. My suggestion is for you to just keep it as a daily beater and check out noob's PAM111 v3 for the special occasions.
You started a thread to say how funny you find French Connection's acronym? Er... ok. They're a clothing company based in the UK. They've been around since the early 70's.
Here's another funny acronym: fsck. It's a unix command. Hilarious no?
Not even close? I have to disagree there. The Skyland Avenger is generally considered a super rep and the SA is one of the best and easiest reps to franken. Plus you're contradicting yourself, if the only one able to call him off is himself then how can you call these reps "not even close" to the gen? No no no my friend, you're way off there.
Wear what fits you. I'm a big guy with big wrists so it's SA all the way for me, Skyland's too small. I don't wear watches less than 47mm. If you have small wrists why are you even considering the SA? Go for the Skyland, case closed.
Noob's PAM111 v3 is pretty accurate. Not perfect but pretty close. With an incabloc mod it becomes very hard to distinguish rep from gen at naked eye.
Best is to buy a SA rep and franken it. Fairly inexpensive and the end result is amazing.