marc, unless my present monitor by some miracle keeps chugging along, I wouldn't want to wait three years before improving my monitor either, but one year may be worth it - depending on what is coming, and we (anyhow I) know very little about that. You are right about the technology business - it is a treadmill - an evolving crap-shoot; the only rule is that whatever we buy today will be obsolete tomorrow and tomorrow keeps coming faster and faster.
As for NEC, if their pre-sales support is crummy, just think of what their technical support may be like.
I haven't bought a LaCie monitor yet, but their tech support people here in Toronto have been first-class responding to my questions about various technicalities I have raised with them. This gives me alot of confidence that I would get the support I need if I buy it and something messes-up thereafter. Yes, more expensive, but just looking through all the NEC issues that surfaced in this thread, maybe there are reasons.
That said, you know, this is also an issue of money versus risk, perception and perfectionism. When I really need to get down to a final decision about it, I'll want to see what the monitor displays relative to some test images before I buy. Then comparing brands, how much quality difference, how much risk you will need tech support etc., etc. There must be many people with NEC monitors using their calibration/profiling getting un-interrupted performance and from their perception fully satisfactory results from it. So the chances are the way you are leaning may work out just fine at lower cost. I think it is one of these areas where eyes-on and hands-on pre-purchase research is imporant, but nothing is certain in life, is it?