As I indicated last week, I subscribed to a thread on Apple's support forum. This response came along today related to the SSD/wake from sleep issue:
So like I told you I returned my macbook air. Well I have a MacBook Pro 17'' and I just ordered a Crucial 128GB SSD, and installed it yesterday night into my MBP. Turns out now I have the same "long wake" issue.
I guess it's not the MacBook Airs that have the problem, it's the way Lion handles SSDs. I installed Snow Leopard on it just to see how it fairs, and it doesn't have this issue, so now I'm fairly certain this is actually a software issue with Lion v.s. a hardware issue with the new MBA's.
Which means... that should probably hound Apple at getting their SSD handling right in Lion. At least I now know what the problem is.