I don't like the look of those splits, but I've had slightly lesser cracks on my ES-3 build and with careful gluing and filling they've come out OK.

You can understand why sunburst (or solid) finishes were so popular with on big bodied guitars like this. It allows you to show off the nice bits of the guitar that are easy to get right, whilst covering up the neck join and maybe some dodgy top to binding areas that have filler in. And you can understand why all-blonde/clear finishes were so rare, as the woodworking and joins had to be near-perfect as mistakes couldn't be hidden.