If you have Applecare, why WOULDN'T you replace it? It's not like you can use it. Just send it in and get it fixed, it's free afterall.
A little refresher on my situation. I bought the SR MBP the day they came out (june 5th, 2007) and did not get the applecare. My MBP crapped out over the weekend, although it wasn't the black screen, it was the random artifact crashes(even during bootup).
So, I decided to call applecare at their regular number(800-275-2273) and see what's up. I routed to the "Technical Support" department. I explained the situation to the person and he had never heard of it, of course. He said he'll go talk to a product specialist and put me on hold for a good 15 minutes or so. The product specialist then came on the phone, and asked about the problem. The first guy had explained it to him pretty well, but I just added a couple things. He was particularly interested in the HP/Dell extensions, as he said he could not find any information on this. He couldn't find the threads or anything, so he gave me his email and told me he'd call me back within an hour, as he needed to talk to some people. I emailed him all the links, and he called me back. He said that he was going to forward the issue to engineering, and that they would go ahead and repair my MBP for free! Needless to say, I was quite happy.
I will not give out the guys name or email, but if you are having the same issues that I had, I suggest calling applecare and being very nice, honest, and upfront about the situation. I never asked to talk to a supervisor, but it may be neccessary. If enough of us call, they WILL see the problem and will address it. Nvidia was supposed to allocate $250milllion for this problem, so it shouldn't really cost Apple anything.