I wish they stopped with the pixel race or at least made it easy for the user to opt-out. 1080p is still pretty great for any mid size laptop and maybe then I'd be able to run Mission Control at more than 5fps.
I'm sure that a lot of it depends on usage (when doesn't it?) and even web browsing involved a lot of CTRL-scrolling the first time I visit a page to scale the text and images up. Still, being able to work on plain old 1080p video with room for a timeline and tools is incredibly useful and moving from a TN panel to IPS made it easier to get more accurate colors.
On one hand, the number of cheap 1920x1080 TN panels that have trickled down to even cheap notebook and desktop displays is a good thing but it seems like we're just starting to see better than that now that 4K and 5K are hitting the high end. Outside of watching movies, I can't think of anywhere that 1920x1080 would be all you'd want.
Are you sure you're not referring to the usable workspace? The usable workspace is half the native resolution when using the default 2x setting on OS X, in your case it is 1440x900 resolution or 900p on your 15" rMBP. The text should be very easy for your eyes to read for several hours compared to your 24" screen.
For me, as I use the computer for more than 8-10 hours every day for work, Retina/Hi-DPI has helped with tired eyes at the end of the day. Eyestrain issues are like nonexistant with retina displays for me.