I just came back from the Apple store to check out the somewhat older 30 inch cinema display.
It also has a noticeable anti-glare coating. But I have to say I didn't find it as distracting as on my Dell. While it was fairly prominent, it seemed to produce less color variation. It's important to note that this wasn't apples-to-apples: the Apple has more ambient light than my room at home, and the white point of the screen also seemed different.
The glossy screens have none of this effect at all, so it really must be the anti-glare coating. I've always preferred the matte coating to the glossy, but I when the matte is this salient, the glossy seems a bit better.