@aterpster
Yeah, I remember reading that (I read John G Fuller's book on Flight 401 when I was a teenager, and when the NTSB put their archive online for the first time I looked it up). What they refer to as the "C-chord chime" (departure from assigned altitude warning) was at the time only a standard fit to the FE's console, and IIRC, one of the NTSB's recommendations after the fact was that the signal also be sent to the headset bus - I also seem to recall reading that they did implment that change.
The placement of the control cables through the floor was less of an issue in the L-1011 IIRC because the L-1011 used plug doors for the cargo hold, unlike the 747 and DC-10 which used outward-opening doors - a different engineering problem entirely. I wonder if that led to the shortfall in payload that plagued the L-1011.
At any rate this is a lovely trip down airliner memory lane, but the original post is wishful thinking. The L-1011 was a lovely design in her day and in many ways still a pioneer, but she's fundamentally forty years old now - there have been too many advances in airframe design since to make a return worthwhile.