I think I might have a different idea of what constitutes playful. I used to own this as a one-bike-for-everything and loved it, it would deal with everything from DH tracks to long rides.
I found though, soon as I switched to the rune I was having more fun everywhere. It cornered better, I stopped going OTB every week, and popped just as nicely, the only place it feels less playful is flat ground and pumptrack style flow trails. Can still get flat 270's on it though, it spins pretty well for what it is. It is more effort on flatter trails, but that's to be expected I'd think. The only real complaint I currently have is that it's not so great at tight switchback climbs, and standing up on loose steep climbs results in the back wheel losing all grip/weighting.
Basically, climbing manners in general.
A mate suggested looking at the bronson today too, so I may just have to test-ride that too.
To explain a little of what I'm finding to be playful, my main haunt is Alice Springs, and we lack the elevation of other places, terrain undulates more and there are rocks and shit everywhere. More trail riding I guess, there's a bit of pedalling effort, although usually short, sharp and loose, followed by a descent that's much the same. There isn't stuff like what I was living and riding out in Wangaratta (and surrounding area), where there are some decent hills in which you put a solid climb in and then are rewarded with a solid descent. It is fairly marathon based though, average ride is going to 25-30km loops that you string together.
The Yeti is playful but it's a bike that hungers for speed that it doesn't quite get enough of out here. It might also be because I grabbed it in an XL and then fitted it out like a Mondraker forward Geo with a tiny little 35mm stem, so it has the long wheelbase which really starts to feel stable at speed, but it takes a little bit of muscling up and around tight switchback corners. It might also be why it seems less playful out here, the longer wheelbase needs a little bit more to launch it, and with its suspension you do need to preload a bit more to get it to pop up. In comparison to the Stumpy, both the 2014 and the 2016 frame that the '14 was warrantied with, they just "pop". It's effortless in how it pops, it turns little trail features and lets you flick off them and get into the air a little where the Yeti would just swallow it.
I find the Yeti to be a little big for out here, it doesn't have enough tracks to really stretch its legs out, taking it to Rotorua really made that abundantly clear. That bike given some gravity feed and room to let it pick up speed just becomes a new creature.
Your trails have some more of that, so I think sticking with a 160mm is a good idea.
Main guy I go riding owns a Bronson, I've ridden it on a few trails out here and it's a friggen dialed bike!! Even without a proper setup for me, I'm a little taller and heavier than Mint, so things were on the plush side. I found the sizing to be a little small, even on a Large Bronson the handlebars felt like they were in my lap, but that didn't stop it being an eye opener. The geometry update to the Bronson has made it more in line of a Boosted rear, mini-Nomad, and the Bible of Bike Test say that the new suspension feels fantastic. A Bronson might very well be on the money for you.
But don't discount the shorter travel crowd. The Trek Enduro team were on 140mm bikes all season, and were just throwing 160mm up front and a coil out back for the steeper courses, some of the Specialized guys were on Stumpy's for the stuff that wasn't bombing off alps all day, and even Graves was saying in his interviews that he preferred the SB5c with a longer fork than the SB6c for most riding. It really isn't always about the exact number on the travel, but how a bike utilises it that makes it how it is, and we've seen that time and again with some rigs feeling like they have more (or less) travel than they really do.
I better end this rant now that I've got paragraphs...sorry for the wall-o-text.
Still think you're gonna end up with a Nomad.