On matte vs. glossy: I was hesitant, but my MBA works well for me, and the reason why is that the screen is so amazingly bright that it blows right through any reflections. If I'm on an airplane and keeping the brightness down to save battery, then I tend to see reflections more. I'd still prefer matte over glossy, because the matte "reflections" are less distracting. Still annoying, but not attention-drawing.

On the Apple-branded display: It's definitely a steep price bump. Ultimately, it's your call. LED backlights are sweet. Built-in web cam is a nice bonus. The Apple solution is clearly the "premium" solution, but there's no reason why you might not prefer a cheaper solution.

Intriguing: Apple is moving away from DVI to DisplayPort. Presumably, all future Apple monitors will also be DisplayPort, as will subsequent Mac minis, MacPro towers, etc. That would say that, if you had a craving for an Apple 30" crazy big monitor, you might prefer to wait a while.