You're not alone in being "overly sensitive to certain aspects of the picture quality". I've been wanting a new TV for ages now. I have 2 old CRT's. One is as old as me (born/made in the '70's), but it's still much easier to watch SD telly on than any LCD I have seen.
I find it amazing that it's possible to spend £1,000 on a TV today, than can't compete with an old CRT from yest-a-year when it comes to SD ...and lets face it, most TV is SD.
Fortunately, things are getting better. The latest Sony, Samsung and Tosh LCD offerings appear to have made a leap forward for LDC TV's. I've always prefered plasma and they do indeed look pretty good when watching HD content. However, I think there is still some way to go to get SD content looking as good as CRTs. I also think the image processing of the latest Panasonic plasma TV's is a little behind some of the recent LCD TVs. This isnt' to say the Panasonic plasmas are bad, just that the the image procesing from the latest Toshiba 40ZF355DB would make the SD of a Plasma really shine.
I think the GPU processing is improving at a fast rate and that in the future we can look forward to much improved image processing. Ironically, it may be that as HD content becomes more common place, we finally get flat screen TVs that can handle SD as well as an old CRT.
Presently, I have about £1,000 to spend on a new TV. It's looking like I'll go with a Panasonic plasma, as I want 1080p (I use my TV's with media pc's). It's a big financial commitment and I can't help thinking that although the latest breed of Panasonic 8 series plasma is good, it's just not quite as good at SD than I would like. I plan to buy a TV for 10 years of use, not upgrade when something better comes along.
PZ80, PZ81, PZ85 or PZ800 decisions decisions...