As an engineer and a guitar maker, in my observation I find that part of the problem with pickup selection is a combination of application and environment. In the case of the K&K, it is a great pick up with great preamps. However, it does have the disadvantage of making the soundboard into a large diaphragm microphone. In order to take advantage of its natural sound, you need someone at the mixing console who knows what they're doing, as well as having a separate split monitor mix. Systems that utilize an amplifier/monitor on stage will have more problems. Additionally, monitor systems that have particularly high stage levels will be problematic for any instrument but particularly for acoustic guitars.
Another problem goes to the issue of what you want the guitar to sound like. A solo guitar or within a duet will sound fine with a natural sound. Even within the context of say a small bluegrass quartet it will be fine. However, in the context of a band, for example say a Crosby Stills Nash, the more the engineer will want to mix for the sound of the pick more so than the guitar. In this context one finds that natural sounding guitar will get lost in the mix because it doesn't have enough cut naturally in that context. Our ears hear 20 Hz to 20 kHz only once, not for every instrument. Consequently, everybody's got to share. The lower frequencies the guitar, are going to be sacrificed in order to make room for the lower frequencies of bass and kick drum. Vocals are often rolled off below 150 Hz. This is done primarily to eliminate the lobing effect created when a vocalist sings too close to the microphone but also it makes room in the lower bandwidths. Often when mixing I will split the guitar send into two separate input channels, one of which is EQ'd for the band, and one that is EQ'd as a solo instrument. I can then choose between the two inputs depending upon whether the guitar is being used in a band situation or solo, without sacrificing the sound of the instrument throughout the show.
I'd like to add that pickups are designed as professional transducers, and often musicians are using less than professional level sound systems and then wonder why they don't perform as expected.
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