I don't know how anyone would call PM-1000 or PM-2000 "Neve-esque", at least not in terms of tone, or circuit design. In fact the PM-1000 and PM-2000 have so little in common it's hard to even talk about them being similar except maybe for subjective tone.
The PM-1000 is rather different than Neve designs in a number of ways. The PM-2000 is a whole lot less similar to classic Neve stuff (1272, 1073) than is the dissimilar PM-1000.
I think the reason people called this "Japa-Neve" is because it was a high-quality Japanese console, not necessarily to equate it to a Neve other than to identify that it is of similar sound quality, while not similar in sound character. Most of the color of the PM-1000 likely comes from the transformers, and most of what people hear similar from PM1000, PM2000 and Neve console channels is the characteristic transformer-preamp sound. IMHO anyway. I bet I could take a TL-072 op amp and breadboard it into a databook reference design for 60dB of variable gain with nothing more exotic than standard polyester capacitors, tack an old Yamaha PM-series transformer on the input and output and most AEs would instantly compare it with a Neve. If I added phantom power, an EQ stage, a clip LED and a VU meter, put it in an expensive extruded aluminum rack chassis, I bet I could sell them for $1k/each. Of course if I was really smart and enterprising, I would make a pair of these with no controls whatsoever, only an output transformer, and a bunch of resistors on the front end connected to 24 input jacks and call it a "summing bus" and sell it for $5K.
FWIW I don't think PM-700 was a modular console. That's a 4-channel behemoth if I recall correctly. Well I can't exactly recall, I wasn't born by the time it was out. But I have read the schematic. 4-channel or 8-channel, but fixed one way or the other, not modular like PM-1000 or PM-2000. My guess is it has transformers in and out and discrete transistor topology like a PM-1000, but you can easily verify this by downloading the schematics from Yamaha and evaluate it yourself. If it has transformers then it'd be worth getting just to steal the iron.