Disclaimer: this is just IME and YMMV/things change all the time.
Griot's BHBs of that vintage were OK (sadly, their current ones *ARE NOT*). But BHBs wear out- losing bristles is no biggie, but the bristles do wear and break. Once you no longer have the flagged bristle tips the BHB generally becomes a scratch machine.
I found out the hard way that you must periodically CD-test them (soak them in shampoo mix for a while first and use your normal degree of applied pressure when testing).
And yeah, "good" BHBs can be too gentle..they don't hurt the finish, but they don't always hurt the soiling either.