I love my G15, will take something pretty incredible to make me switch (Optimus anyone?). If you have the money this is without doubt worth every penny. With you being on a budget though my Eclipse II suggestion still stands.
With regards to your G15 questions.
The keys are now bullet proof in terms of finish, the early release had this problem, anything new does not. The G11 will be equally fine. This is a non issue.
Win key thing is nice, but as you say not essential. It's one less program to run to achieve this. Though in the case of the G15 you're adding another equally small program to run the LCD software.
The LCD screen is great, the basic functions are good but the mods you can add are just much better.
I currently use Teamspeak mod which shows me who is chatting in my current TS room.
Trillian mod which shows me messages recieved and allows me to reply via the LCD which is very nice for games that don't like ALT-TAB.
And Everest now supports the G15, I have my CPU, GPU, HD, MB temps displayed along with GPU and CPU usage and CPU volts.
Winamp mod is nice for turning your screen off and just leaving the KB on to play music and work through your playlist.
The G keys (extra keys on the G15) are useful and the provided software is excellent for setting up macros and such. But this is one feature I could personally live without.
The key action is responsive and easy, the slightly rubberised wrist rest stays cool and clean while providing perfect support and comfort. This is the most comfortable KB I've ever used.
Little extras like a channel cut into the underside of the KB for a headset or headphone cable just finish the thing off.
The reason to get a G15 over the Eclipse II is the feature set such as LCD, Media keys and quality of backlighting. If you don't need or won't use this stuff then the Eclipse II is perfect.
