You have to show them, David.
Just because they don't know enough to identify or articulate the difference doesn't mean they don't see it - and a stress factor is every bit as much a stress factor regardless of whether they are conscious of it or unconscious.
I think it's part of your job, if you are ethical in your dealings with the public, to steer people towards things that are good for (amongst other things) their eyes and their health. That's what they are paying you for - your expertise and in-depth understanding. In other words, a good deal of what people pay you for isn't the box you sell them or the latest, greatest CPU chip inside it, it's the effort you make to help them pich the right system, get the most out of it, and have it take the least out of them. (Eyestrain = stress = headaches = lost productivity = bad temper = lower marks = grumpy people round the home. Stress is cumulative. It all adds up.)
These days any fool can build a computer that works most of the time and is at least minimally capable of basic tasks (yes, even the likes of Dell and Compaq can do that). What sets the true professional apart is attention to the more subtle things that really matter long-term, and of all those things, decent picture quality is #1. A decent keyboard/mouse is high up on the list too.
It's amazing how quickly people start to pick up on stuff once you show them what to look for. Or, when you think about it, perhaps it isn't so amazing: their body already knows that Screen X is crap and hard to read, you just have to get the conscious mind up to speed.
Ever spend any time with small children? One of the key roles parents play is teaching children how to "read their bodies" - how to notice if they are tired or hungry or cold or need to pee, and (now being consciously aware of what their bodies knew all along) putting them in a position to do something about it. I find that teaching people how to look at a monitor is rather like that: I often spend 5 minutes getting someone to look at two or three different models (and these days to look at the same model in two or three different screen resolutions) and then they tell me that they want the better one. Next time they buy, they will be able to do it without my help.
(Oh, and lest you think I'm doing this just because I'm a nice bloke and care about people .... well, that's part of it, but it's also one of the little things that sets me apart from my competition, helps justify my outrageous prices, and brings me repeat business time after time.)
Errr .. and it would have to be a really crap CRT to be worse than a 1280 x 1024 TFt at 1024 x 768. If you are talking an old, tired 15 inch thing, sure, I agree. But I'd use a half-decent 17" CRT anyday before I'd touch a fuzzmonkey of a TFT running out of spec.)
With my Viewsonic LCD, I'm always tweaking the brightness.
