I had the opportunity to listen to the B&W 702 S2 on the T+A A200.
As soon as you switch to DF LO, the reproduction becomes more bulbous and the area above now seems to be behind a thin curtain. Bass beats themselves are reproduced more fully with DF LO, but lack contour.
If I had simply had an amplifier swap done there on site, i.e. had an AMP with a lower DF replaced by one with a higher one, I would most likely have preferred the lower one and would not have noticed the advantages of the higher DF in the higher ranges at all, i.e. less curtain. If you want to run the 702 without a sub, another option would be to bi-amp it. I think with a low DF for the lower part and for the rest a high DF one would be able to get the most coherent without sub.