Not sure what to say Rob other than being an annoyance.
I've been known to say for a while now -- perhaps unfairly -- that I'm finally "coming of age" on what concerns the so-called technological advancements. That is to say, I'm hard to impress these days, as most of what I see I tend to immediately recognize as futile, inefficient or, as you say, inconsequential fad.
There's been a general tendency to make niches look like mainstream in this business. Often pushed by a certain careless media that encourages the "more is better" line of reasoning. Helped, no doubt, by a general lack of knowledge of the readers and the companies own commercial interests.
It's for this reason we have people swearing they can play games better at 120 fps than at 80, for instance. Or people swearing over 64 bits even when the vast majority doesn't make use of half of the >=8GB RAM they are using. Etc, etc.
There's a predisposition to build myths around this area that people will defend fiercely often without realizing (or not accepting) they are under the influence of either a certain drug called consumer greed, or suffering from the ubiquitous placebo effect. The thing is there is always a niche that will be thankful (and needing) of many of these advancements, make no mistake. But we tend to think of these as necessary to us too or else we suck. What at the end of the day it comes too however is that at 1400x900 60FPS I can (have!) fragged so much many superdupers-I-own-a-god-computer, they bounce of the friggin' walls. Similarly, with a nice 16:9 4 year old Samsung TV set I have been enjoying great movies without any loss whatsoever to my entertainment lobes or my libido.
So, 4K TVs? Whatever. Let someone else spend their money as they see fit. I definitely won't give a dime for the cause of human stupidity.
EDIT: And to be sure, I'm stupid in different ways. Technology isn't just one of those. So don't think I'm trying to mount some high horse here. What however I try is to recognize my stupidity and not make excuses for it.
