Yes, I find that there are differences in eye strain between the regular and nanotexture displays, even in a dark room with no reflections. It's worth trying both. One interesting difference between the two that not a lot of people realize is that the light emitted by the regular screen is circularly polarized, while the nanotexture is largely non-polarized.
Can you explain more about what that means / share a link to further reading? Tried searching but couldn't find much online about the light polarization specifically, and am interested in the nanotexture for reducing eye strain.
Indeed: only trying them both side by side at home would yield a useful conclusion. Trying to gauge which would be better for you from the Apple Store display would be about as useless as trying to decide which big TV to buy from Best Buy based on how they all look in the store, with settings completely other than those you'd use at home.