Even with today's technologies, if you still want to max out the monitor's capabilities, provided you can find an experienced person with the appropriate equipment AND software, I believe it is well worth the expense. I have two RP CRT's in my house including a 7 yr. old Toshiba 65" 1080i set and it basically looks as good as the day it was delivered. Blu-Ray is great even over 1080i.
For me there are TWO very good reasons for strongly considering calibration. One that has already been mentioned and probably the most important for color accuracy is grey-scale. I have seen large screen plasma and LCD sets in stores today, specifically a Panasonic that I noticed that had a definite leaning towards the green in its picture. Some will have leaning towards the red, others towards the blue. Unfortunately you won't necessarily notice it unless you can compare it to other sets at the same time in the same room. This problem is especially noticeable during dark scenes and will affect the color balance at all levels of brightness. Some sets give you a limited capability of adjusting the different colors(Green, blue and red) internally, but without the proper measuring equipment, you could end up making it worse.
The second reason is voltage. As we all know, in the BIG BOX stores they have a bunch of sets on together cranked up because of the bright lighting to make them all look impressive. The problem is, when you get one of these in to your home it will probably be way to bright. Usually it is the contrast up way too high which is voltage and I have seen alot of these sets, when measured , up over D9000 when the proper measurement for accurate color reproduction is around the D6500 level at all levels of brightness. So what does this mean? Bring down the contrast level of your set to where it should be and that set will last and maintain its color balance considerably longer. My CRT's are a perfect example of that.
