I've had a Pioneer plasma for 6 years now - in fact I just purchased a new TV yesterday to replace it (I don't even want to admit how much it cost when I purchased it... but let's just say the new 52" Sony LED unit was less than 15% of what the 43" Pioneer was).
I really like the Panasonic plasmas in the VT and GT lines (or G25 line if you don't want/care about 3D capabilities). If you're really in to video primarily, and don't like the DLP look - then I would agree with plasma being the better technology... it just looks 'right'.
That being said, I got the N800 series Sony which does have the 240Hz mode - I just won't ever use it. When I was in the store I noticed that they had some Samsung and Panasonic plasmas on a wall that were always displaying the menu on the Star Trek bluray they had for demo... when we asked them to play the movie so we could see video playing - the choice (at least between those two) was clear. The burn in on the Samsung was as bad as it is on my 6 year old Pioneer (the reason I was looking for a new TV in the first place). On the panasonic it was just barely visible and went away completely within about 5 minutes of having a full screen video.
Anyway, my wife and I read hundreds of reviews and viewed all of the units on display at 3 big box stores and costco too... pretty much you just have to see if you like the picture and the price is right. I actually liked plasma best, CCFL backlit LCD second and LED backlit 3rd. But then wound up buying an LED backlit TV after all that - because the price was so good I couldn't pass it up. However, other than wanting movies to look 'good enough' I'm not really as critical of video as you might be.