I noticed the iPad bevel as soon as I left it on top of a table. It has a useful benefit though: when grabbing it from the table it's easier to get the fingers around the edge.
It just takes someone with an eye for aesthetics to look at a design and say whether it's good. I'd suggest hiring someone that dresses well. Some clothes make you look fat, others don't. The person should understand why that is so.
The bevel of the iMac has the same thing. The new design was touted as much thinner than the old one (the white plastic version), where in fact, it was much thinner on the edges but about otherwise.
Incidentally, a friend at Apple said they had a magician on campus today.