I am surprised you ended up with a CofG issue, the usual issue is simply with 900ish lbs of useable weight 4 * 200lb people and fuel is hard to fit in. With that load distribution it should be in CofG limits. Check another plane's W&B if it is an issue.
There are people who seem to fly over MAUW regularly. Look at any 152 with 2 people and full tanks. If you do that you need to accept the consequence if there is an accident, ie no insurance and coffee with no biscuits at the CAA after the accident.
The arrow is a nice plane for 4 up and a good plane to graduate onto. You could do worse.