I've been curious about the controversy around the pentile display, but I haven't physically seen one in my own hands to get my own evaluation of it.
Bona fides: I own an S1, S3, iPodTouch(2G), iPad3, GalaxyTab10.1 and Galaxy7. I work for a company that develops mobile apps and it's my job to know about these devices.
Pentile HD is gorgeous despite all the negative you might've heard. I thought I'd be really picky too and was even considering the HTC One X due to it's superior display... but as I squint closely at the details on the Nexus' screen, it almost looks like my home screen is printed on high quality photo-paper. The only time you might notice the pentile arrangement is if some app prominently featured single-pixel white lines all over the place. I've also heard somewhere that solid white colours aren't represented correctly and appear a little yellowish or something, but so far I haven't noticed or it just hasn't bothered me. What I did notice, however, is how rich and dark the colour black appears. I was watching Kung Fu Panda 2 on Netflix the other day with my nephew and I noticed that in certain dark scenes I couldn't tell where the screen ends and where the bevel begins.
These impressions might all be tinted with my sub-standard experience with the HTC Snap before this so take it with a grain of salt (Although I did use an iPad 2 for several weeks and also have experience with my brother's iPhone 4 and with both I felt very limited in what I could do and at certain points felt downright annoyed)
Full disclosure: I bought a used Galaxy Nexus a few weeks ago and after extensive use (including a week-long vacation with it in a city I've never been to before) I am not looking back.