Albert, hope you enjoy your Panasonic plasma. I bought one a year ago now and really love it. I would strongly recommend that you have it professionally calibrated after the first two hundred hours of viewing. I could not believe the difference this made, and I paid close attention so I could do it again myself now if I want to tweak it in the future.
Kijanki, the viewing distance charts are important if only because they make the viewing so much easier on your eyes. I was skeptical of this until I experienced the difference myself. I have a 50" that I sit about 8 to 9 feet away from, so I am at the minimum end of the guideline, but I can't believe how much easier the bigger screen is on the eyes.
Plasma was the choice for me over LCD for several reasons - most important, they have MUCH better blacks, and I watch alot of art films and classic films so this is important to me. Also, the picture looks correct no matter what angle you are sitting at, unlike LCD's, where you have to be centered to the picture for it to look correct. I also watch alot of soccer and basketball, and these quick moving sports look much better on plasmas than on LCD's. Don't remember the technical reason for this, though it was explained to me at one point. Basically, the only disadvantage is they do use more power. In every other respect, I find them superior to LCD. I don't ever have the problem of light shining directly on it, though even if you did, you can have it calibrated one way during the daytime, and another way at night, so this is not really an issue.
