Simon over at TFTCentral used to do the best monitor reviews. Sadly, he quietly replaced his site with an OLED-focused blog a few years ago, perhaps because catering to gamers with disposable income makes more money. Nevertheless, he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to displays, his tech articles are still good (if you can find them on the new site), and he might still review IPS models once in a while:
OLED suffers from burn-in after enough years pass. Some vocal gamers on Reddit don’t seem to care about this, arguing that you’ll throw away the monitor before the burn-in becomes a problem. I think this is irresponsible (unnecessary environmental damage), and wasteful (I keep using my tools until they die).
A good IPS panel will have only mild glow at off-angles. It’s visible around the corners if I’m playing very dark games in a very dark room and sitting close to the screen, but even then, it’s never bothersome, since I don’t spend much time staring at the corners of the screen.
In addition to gaming, I spend lots of time reading text. IPS is generally great for this. OLED panels vary in this area, in some cases even using weird subpixel layouts (e.g. BGR) that defeat font rendering systems like ClearType, making the text anything but sharp. Eye strain sucks.
I haven’t been following display news in the past year or so, but when I was, LG.Display’s “IPS Black” panels were on their way to market with a promise of higher contrast ratios than traditional IPS. I think Dell or HP were going to use them. By now, more of their kind might exist.
When I was last shopping for a 27" gaming/productivity display, I narrowed it down to the Asus ROG Strix XG27AQMR, Dell G2724D, and Acer Predator XB273U V3bmiiprx. That was roughly a year ago. I don’t know if those models are still on the market, or if better ones are available now.
IMHO, two hours is not nearly enough to get a feel for a game. At least, not for the sorts of games I tend to play. I spend longer than that just working through initial technical issues, configuration, and (in games that have one) the character generator.
I have to conclude that Steam’s return window is either intended to be just enough to see if you can get it running, or as much as Valve could talk publishers into tolerating.
I often sit at a desk all day and all evening. I find that these things help:
Good chair. Height adjusted for my keyboard/mouse height. Upright back. Lumbar support. Comfortable-but-supportive seat.
Good posture (when I remember to pay attention to it).
Split, tented keyboard. Mechanical switches that don’t require too much pressure.
Good display. IPS panel. Light anti-glare surface. Backlight that actually dims the light source, either without pulse-width modulation, or with PWM at such high frequency that it cannot induce flicker fatigue. Brightness turned down much lower than the default. Calibrated at that brightness setting, optionally to a slightly warm color temperature.
Muted room lighting. Nothing behind me bright enough to reflect much on the screen.
Comfortable clothes.
Cup of water. Regular trips to the kitchen to keep it filled.
Frequent short breaks. Start the laundry. Get a snack. Look at objects outside. Wash a dish. Bring in the mail. Make the bed.
Exercise. At least 10 minutes daily; preferably 30 minutes or more. Stretches. Squats. Rhythm games that require full-body movement.
Have you considered making a Linux virtual machine now, and learning small things a few minutes at a time between other tasks? That ought to give you a head start when it comes time to commit.