i think that the article was using a crt as the reference? still the best, but limited by size.
what i got out of the article discussion was that the people who wrote the study were behind plasma picture quality over lcd, but they got hammered by the lcd groupies in the discussion... if you look on that website, there is another article on 120hz that's a pretty good read... look at the credentials of the author, the same guy wrote both articles.
imho, the type of backlighting used on lcds is highly overrated, if i wanted an lcd big screen for some reason, i'd be concerned about the panel type:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TFT_LCD
for the relatively cheap price of these big screens, i don't see 'em using the best lcd panels, and none of the manufacturers seem to be telling what panels they are using.
plasma technology is the minority, but it's getting better, and it's finally getting cheaper just within the last few weeks... i just got a panasonic p54s1 shipped to my door for $1008, after bing and a 10% sears card discount... the picture quality is really good, regardless of the viewing angle.