I just stumbled across this myself today. I ruled it out because of the motor and the gear ratio, not so much
for the pickup issues. That motor is one of those little finger-brush affairs. I doubt it will last long and it
won't have any power without a gear reduction.
It's too bad the worm is at the center. If they put the big idler gear closer to one end, you could put a
6mm or 8mm motor with a high-ratio gearhead (I'm thinking like 16:1) and then you would get plenty
of power and smooth running out of it.
As for the pickups, well, the only way I see to make that really work is to spring-load one of the axles. Maybe you could
file the slots to allow for some up/down play and then mount some .008" bronze wire on there as springs.
It ain't easy... like I said, I passed it up because of these things.