I had similar concerns before putting my order in but in all honesty not one factory has really nailed the color at this point. Same goes for the BLRO/BLNR which I have been watching/waiting for it to be right for a long ass time.
I think we sometimes fairly or unfairly use the LN as the comparison when it's generally stupid simple to get black right on an insert or dial (never mind the glossy vs. matte issues).
At the end of the day it's a rep and a fairly inexpensive rep before mods and what you can live with when wearing it. I personally have NEVER in my life run into someone wearing a Hulk Rolex...but I have seen dozens upon dozens of LN subs, GMT LN's, and a few Daytona's. I am not personally ever worried about someone trying to call me out wearing a rep and the percentage of people that would recognize a rep Hulk is probably so infinitely small that only people like us here on the forum even think about it lol =)
Now watch as soon as I get this damn thing I will run into a half dozen people wearing a Hulk Rolex...(not likely but I guess anything is possible)
In real life like face to face, I am convinced most Rolex owners would be entirely unable to identify a noob or ARF hulk over a gen Submariner. That is they can’t spit the difference between a rep or gen. In a casual environment that is. Certainly not with convincing confidence.
Even if they spot differences it’s nothing that can’t be explained as a difference in manufacture year. Not many people spend hours a day staring at watches the way we do and even if they do there is a difference between pics and the naked eye. And even if they do that, no one wants to “call anyone out” because there are potentially many negative consequences and like absolutly nothing to be gained from it.
I think we’re safe. I usually don’t make claims of authenticity myself (that is I don’t say to people “it’s real”) instead I have other things I say if the topic were to come up but even if I were to make those claims, I’d be completely confident no one would ever dispute it with reps of this level.
