the glossy is less straining on my eyes
I read a lot of people saying matte is better than glossy for text-intensive uses. I really disagree. The text on the glossy is MUCH sharper and blacker than on the matte. On the matte it's a bit fuzzy. And the white/light backgrounds on the matte has that annoying anti-glare "sparkle."
Reflection from the glossy isn't as huge a problem as some people think (especially for the MBP glossy), since our eyes focus the reflection out. At the store, the reflection problem may seem bad, because you are just casually viewing the screen. When you actually focus on the text, you really don't notice the reflection that much.
Whenever I spend a lot of time on my girlfriend's G4 Powerbook and then switch to my glossy MBP, my eyes feel a visceral sense of relief. I can't stare at a Word document on a matte for long periods of time, it's simply too harsh on my eyes (if I lower the brightness, it just looks bled out). When I switch to the glossy screen, it's like taking my eyes away from the computer to relax. There's a certain sense of depth in the glossy that relaxes my eyes.
So here's my conclusion: For older people whose eyes might not focus as quickly (can't focus out the reflections), the matte may be a better choice. For people who are near-sighted and light-sensitive (like me), and spend a lot of time on high-contrast environments like Word, the glossy is the way to go.