Was yours overly bleeding light in one or more of the corners? I wish I had my old MacBook to compare to make sure I'm not expecting too much from the panel, as I know they'll always be some backlight bleed. It's the kind of issue that's really difficult to photograph.
Not that I noticed. Mine had a grey section on the left of the screen, just above the input window on this photo. Was really annoying when scrolling as it didn't move so my eye kept being drawn to it.
Ir does seem like they have a production issue. I haven't really had mine back long enough to be sure but it seems fixed.