Thank you both for the great advice. I figured the acid test would be to try each on and have experience with them, and I'm glad to confirm that here. I am going to try and get to an REI this weekend and see if I can't try out the Osprey.

It's great to learn that packs are that individual, because now I won't just assume reviews can be generalized.

The more I thought about it, the thing I like MOST about the BD is the pivoting hip belt. Because of this I think i'll probably stay with the BD, as they Osprey doesn't have this feature.