Many people claim that taller flanges make a stiffer wheel but the actual benefit is minimal. If you were building a wheel with more spokes, I'd say go with a taller flange but 28h gives a lot of meat around the spoke holes. As a side note, I've held the cyclocross front hub in person and it's beautiful. I'm not sure if the bearings differ from hub to hub, that might be something worth researching.