Hi Paul,
Thanks for your question. We view the TVs from all sorts of angles and distances when we test them out. Like you say, we don't expect anyone to sit super close to a 55in TV although, of course, some people do enjoy something close to a front row of the cinema feel.
The sentence about the distance was a reference to the viewing angles. The off-axis viewing on this TV was poor at all distances. Up very close, though, it was so bad that even a central, on-axis positioned showed up the poor panel tech.
Hope that's clear.
Dan.