Isn't that thing OLED? I'm not surprised that it's 30k. It's effectively local dimming... for each pixel. Not at all comparable to Apple's HDR display.

Depends, They had an OLED version that they stopped making or selling the OLED version because it wasn't good enough.

And no, OLED, its current form is not the holy grail as some would like to imagine.

I know nothing about "reference grade" monitors. Can anyone comment on the veracity of the only competing product for this new monitor costing $30,000?

IIRC Sony's is an OLED display. Different display technology. Very expensive. Entirely different. You can't do what an OLED can do with an LCD.

But that's the point. They did do with LCD what, before, was only possible on OLED. That's the claim, anyway.