"These days" is not very accurate considering it's Pat Metheny who's been around for more than 30 years But weird is good, seeing as he's made extremely good use of all 42 strings, instead of it being weird for the sake of being "quirky" and "new". Restringing that thing must be suicide-worthy though.
FYI that 'weird' guitar u mentioned just so happens to be one of the guitars listed in a book containing one of the most handmade and contemporary guitars along side other beauties such as the dragon prs etc etc.