If anything, ive been very impressed with the durability of the screen on this phone. I have dropped it face down NUMEROUS times. At the very least 7 - 8 times. And its held up like a champ. I have a screen protector on top of Sony's pre-fab'd one, and it looks and feels just fine. Only issue is the viewing angles. But thats to be expected with a TFT lcd regardless of protectors.
Also mine doesn't feel awkward to touch. The way you describe it, it's as if you have an air gap between the glass and touch panel. I don't seem to have that at all. Its as if the image is pasted to the back of the glass, the way its supposed to. I do have a gap between the back panel and battery. And if I push against the back panel, I can feel it depress and make contact with the battery. But no physical display related issues... so far anyway.
What model do you all have? I see alkesh has a c502. Mine is a C506. Wondering if maybe there is a build quality difference among different models??