Perhaps I am too late with this info, but I'll give you my $0.02 anyway.

On a personal note...

I am an engineer by trade (and programmer/CG artist by hobby) so I spend inordinate amounts of time in front of a monitor. I find the flat panel displays to be friendlier on the eyes than a CRT.

Also, as far as the (1)motion blur, (2)sharpness, (3)color representation, and (4)dead pixel issues go:

(1)blur used to be a BIG issue for LCDs, newer materials and manufacturing methods have seriously levelled the playing field over the last few years. (It used to be that a hard-core gamer wouldn't be caught dead with anything but CRT...now many--if not most--use LCDs.)

(2)an LCD should be razor-sharp when run in its native resolution (interpolating can get a bit messy sometimes, but is usually not a real problem)...however, pay attention to dot pitch when selecting your "dream screen" (sometimes the LCD matrix can be a bit distracting...although newer monitors are pretty good in this area)

(3)as with blur, color representation used to be up in the air, but should not be much of an issue anymore with a quality screen from a reputable company (do your homework on independent sites like Tom's Hardware for color gamut tests...don't take a manufacturer's/distributor's word for it). For the most part, if you find a monitor with good brightness and contrast, you should be able to calibrate it to fit your needs without incident. As for calibration programs, I have use a combination of a gamers utilities (can't remember what my favorite was called offhand but most are quite good for putting you in the ballpark), video-card settings (for more fussy fine-tuning), and Photoshop gamma tool and color profiles (for matching colors in specific situations...like your magenta printing issues).

(4)dead pixels remain an issue with some screen makers, but most are not very serious. Again, some homework on independent sites like Tom's Hardware about a manufacturer's dead-pixel policy are quite helpful. I remember reading a comparison a few years back on tom's hardware that specifically listed one manufacturer who had a Zero-Dead-Pixel policy (if one existed a screen was not shipped). Some manfuacturer's (at that time...not sure if this is still the case) actually allowed screens to be sold so long as the number of dead pixels was under .001% (7 pixels on a 1024x768 screen and 13 @ 1280x1024).

As with any purchase, doing your research is important; but I see no reason (as long as it's financially feasible) why you shouldn't go with a quality LCD display.

PHEW!!! That got quite a bit longer than I had planned.

~~Duk