What's the deal with raised pole pieces?

[ericsmith]

My Fender CS jazz has pickups with raised pole pieces and compared to my other jazz, which has "flat" poles the ratio of strings clicking with the pole pieces is much smaller than with the CS. Yeah and I know the pickups can be lowered...

So what's the deal with the raised pole pieces?

 

[line6man]

They are meant to follow the radius.

 

[Hawkbone]

I asked this same question a few weeks back. The best guess at the time was that string technology at the time yielded an A string that had lower output than the other strings. Makes sense, but could be complete BS. It can't be just to compensate for fretboard radius, or the D poles would be raised too. Whatever the case, be wary of advice to tap the poles down flush.