I'm not surprised. I did a lot of research before I got mine and almost every educated reviewer strongly preferred plasma. The Pioneer Elite Kuros had already stopped being produced when I bought mine and had become something of a white whale, driving prices of them through the roof on the secondary market. The Panasonic line that I purchased became one of the next best alternatives.
I believe the death of plasma was largely due to retailers and their strategies. Their showrooms were so brightly lit that plasmas looked worse side-by-side, LCD/LED tvs were capable of much brighter pictures. But since nobody's home is that brightly lit up, it was irrelevant and plasmas are plenty bright for most homes. Also I believe margins on LCD/LED TVs were higher, so retailers pushed those over plasmas despite plasmas having better picture quality. The public was all over the burn-in issue that plagues early plasmas, but that's a non-issue for later generation sets like mine. Reflectivity of the screen also improved greatly with AR coatings, I have no issues there either. To this day when I watch TV at friends' homes and they have the digital video processing effects on their LED TVs cranked up which creates the so-called "soap-opera effect" it makes me cringe. I don't understand how anyone watches such an unnatural picture.
My plasma will continue to be my primary TV until the day it dies.
