Thanks for all your advice and support ...
To make a long story short, the LG was fixed and I'm now the proud father of a brand new Panasonic TH-50PX50U which I got for little more than the LG. The 9th gen PX60U are coming out soon at a much lower MSRP price of around $4,500 [with a few "improvements" like more shades of graduation, thinner glass etc], but [due to the "misunderstanding" and the whole situation/kickbacks] I still got the PX50U for an "out the door " cost of a lot less and there's not much to complain about which is the bottom line.
Getting back to the LG ; Raymond [the techy] of Tripole Electronics did, in fact, come out and install the upgrade which, along with some adjustments, fixed all the major issues. I didn't get a chance to check out whether the "exaggerated" color banding was also corrected. The sparkle effect was fixed right away and as far as I could tell the image retention was virtually non existent, so LG owners may want to see if they can get the upgrade FWIW. I'm not sure if the perceived uneven pixel wear was fixed or just adjusted so it's not noticed.
In the mean time, in-between arguing back and forth ( in retropect, had I dealt with the sales person rather than the manager, head office etc it may have been resolved sooner ), I checked out different plasmas at various stores and regardless of settings the Panasonic took the edge overall in PQ through my perception - some may prefer the Pioneer - the Fujitsu is also intriguing. LG easily wins over the Panasonic feature wise though (as if it's not confusing enough calling brightness contrast) Now, if I can just find a technician with the apparently few and far between remotes to access and calibrate ISF.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/
http://www.digitalhomecanada.com
