The arcade "feeling" of a cabinet is more important to me than image quality, honestly. I would prefer a CRT but if all my needs can be met with an LCD instead, I could go that route.
Order of importance to me:
1. Being able to play MAME, late 90s-early 2000's arcade games, Namco System 256, and maybe NAOMI.
2. The arcade "feeling"
3. Two-player capability of MAME games
4. Affordability
5. Future Namco System 357 capability
6. Image quality
Honestly, a perfect image would be great but it's not all that important to me.