Great primer on studio monitors Craig.
In my view the most important point you make is how studio monitoring is not just about speakers; it's about a complete acoustical system, of which speakers are a component. The room, volume levels and in particular your expectations and experience play equally important roles in the quality of the mix.
I recall visiting the studio of a well-known producer with over 200 million records sold to find that he was working with old NS10s and a consumer-grade active subwoofer. Not the rig I would have expected but it clearly didn't stop him from cranking out hits. Over the years he had dialed in his monitor rig and knew what he was after in the mix.
That's not to say that speakers don't matter or that all models are equal. To the contrary, speakers marketed as studio monitors can and do sound very different. Equally important is how they sound at low volume levels as you rightly point out, but also how they perform near their limits. For a whole host of reasons most speakers don't exhibit linear performance across their power band.
The best advice as you suggest is to find a reference system at a studio and compare various models in that environment. If you manage to get a few people together and possibly a local store or manufacturer's rep to supply some gear you can make it a really good listening opportunity. Just don't call it a shoot-out.
Costa
