I meant those too.
I know HIGH/LOW includes the clearing the TRIS-bit and that it's less likely to get a RMW-issue using it. I probably wouldn't go so far to say that RMW is non existent though since it depends on the load and, obviously, on the clock frequency. What frequency did you run at when you tried a 3.5uF capacitve load? RMW-issues also exists (with and without HIGH/LOW) when the pin(s) isn't properly configured for digital I/O.

/Henrik.