I'd leave the first one as is and make the second one as close to identical as possible. In my opinion the diagonals are small enough there is not a significant weight penalty compared to the balsa parts.

My uproar was my second kit as well. My first was a trainer. I managed to build a little twist into my fuselage. Fortunately, or possibly unfortunately, I'm not a good enough pilot to notice it once the plane was trimmed. I really do like flying this plane, and I hope you like yours just as much.