I had found myself dissatisfied for a while with the sound of the neck 280, but I think we have a built-in bias to what we think 'looks' right in regards to our sound.

I'm used to not putting my pickups so close to the strings, but that's exactly where the BL's shine. You can't be used to the settings that you're used to with other pickups, and I've been having these pickups a while. I find that even over time my tastes change and I have to do a re-adjustment and critical listening.

For instance, I wanted that clear-bell bottom end sound, and I thought I had to crank the treble strings closer and the bass strings away, afraid I'd 'woof up' the sound with too much bass. It doesn't exactly work that way. Crank the bass side up and you actually get more treble!
Even though the bass strings have more vibration and theoretically can be moved further away, some of the mid and upper harmonics still have to be read by the pickup. Surprisingly, the bass end doesn't swamp them out like I thought they would.
I'm still interested in the 200's, but I found that I really like the 280s as well.