Monitors for Macs: do you need Apple's pixel density?

This is the most accurate and in-depth article I've read which discusses the state of external monitors on the Mac. So many others get hung-up on the implementation details of high-DPI scaling that they miss the forest for the trees.

After nearly three years of working on a 4K 27" with the oft-maligned non-native scaling applied to resize elements to look like 2560x1440, the experience is absolutely fine and so much nicer than a native 1440p screen which I used to use. At ~$300 for my monitor instead of ~$1600 for the Apple-approved 218 PPI Studio Display, it's really hard to conjure up a reason to recommend people splurge on the "true Retina" experience. It's really a case of diminishing returns when you get much above ~150PPI at a normal viewing distance.