Yes, I've seen people demonstrate their inability to reproduce the problem. I bet occurrence of the problem has a lot to do with the signal in the testing environment, from frequency to strength, relative strengths of various frequencies, and probably other factors. That was my point with the Pinto, not to make some sort of car analogy. The problem is that the problem occurs, and it's really significant, even if it doesn't occur in every situation.

I would imagine that most of the iPhone4 real-world testing was done in the SF Bay area, or there and a few other select places. I doubt that there was testing in Peoria, for example. I bet that this problem rarely, if ever, occurs in Apple's prime testing locations.

The problem that I have is that Apple clearly screwed the pooch on this, and won't admit it. ("Doctor, it hurts when I touch the spot." "Don't do that!") The next revision will almost certainly have this problem resolved, and they'll still claim that there isn't a problem, even though they will have clearly taken steps to resolve it.

I think having the antenna be integral to the case is a great idea when you're concerned with space savings. But putting the dielectric at a point where virtually everyone is going to touch it is retarded. I'm not going to claim to be an antenna expert (or novice, even), but rotating the assembly 180° so that the dielectric point is on the upper right, where it's very unlikely to be touched during normal usage, would seem to be a no-brainer.