I returned it not because it wasn’t perfect, but because its list of issues was too long. With exception to the antiglare coating grain (it was one of the most bothersome), I could’ve lived with some of its problems if they weren’t so numerous. No monitor comes totally problem free after all.
The other issue is its cost. Expectations raise alongside price, and at an MSRP of $3200 they’re pretty high, and this monitor in my opinion doesn’t meet the bar… with its build quality, problems, and lack of polish it’d maybe make sense at half that price, but even then that antiglare coating would make it a hard sell. They’d need to at least change the coating to make it resemble that of a more traditional matte monitor (which has no grain or sparkle effect).
And you’re right, there isn’t really an alternative except the Pro Display XDR, which is priced far beyond what many of us would find reasonable, uses increasingly dated local dimming tech, and has no extra functions beyond the hub on its back. That’s part of why I was disappointed: everything was lined up for Dell to have been able to knock this one out of the park — it would’ve been easy — but they didn’t.