Damn really, Think I've installed about 25 so far and the nightmare I had with GB still haunts me. There were soooo many pieces that had to go on in specific order. Most other games are pretty simple... IMDN needed some tweaking, other then that.

They take less then 5 minutes to cut out. Took one out of my TOM, because of ball hang-up's (my fault partly, due to how I modified the protector)

The biggest thing with that game was re-leveling the turn table. Easier with two people.
That one didn't have a lot that needed to be taken out.

Buy one, try it. If you don't like it take it back out, worse comes to worse you loose a 100 bucks.
play 50-100 games put a light coat of wax. after that it's really hard to notice any kind of difference In my opinion. That is, unless your looking for stuff to be different then who knows what you'll find. The only things I've noticed are that it plays slightly faster. That and you won't hear the ball rolling noise, which is hard to notice with the glass on anyway.

Like the other guy said to, if you don't like the way it looks after X amount of plays. Take it out, not a big deal.

For me it makes it a lot easier to clean/maintain on location.
That and if I skip a cycle or three, my pins won't take the brunt of my neglect.

As for dimples, all playfields dimple.... its just on sterns it's a lot more apparent for whatever reason. I have a TNA and JJP without any protectors and they don't look anything like some of these sterns I've seen.

usually the case, most games can be adjusted to make sure this stops happening. (mainly a bigger issue if circles are cut to big on star rollover or pop bumpers).
The one big improvement, is mylar doesn't interfere with ball play anymore. Annoying when a slow moving ball gets knocked off a course due to sling shot mylar.

They all move to some degree, like whthrs166 said once you get it fitted just find a post or something. At the same time that might not work either, because it can cause the protector to kink and lift up. Most of the time you don't need to do anything, on occasion I'll use that double sided tape cliffy uses on his protectors in a few areas (that's only once everything is 100% assembled). It takes time to get it right, just make sure you do a light coat of wax after a few plays.

if it's for your TOM I wouldn't worry about it, it's mainly a thing for new games.

Usually if the game is a few months old they are don't really show up anymore. Think it more has to do with the playfield cure time. I've tried all sorts of crap to prevent it and finally let nature take its course.

Na, it has something to do with the silicon, cleaner or something in the clear coat that spreads on the playfield from the factory.
I've found that when I clean the crap out of it with Naptha there are less "wet spots", but they still exist.
If you wait a few months and clean it regular, there will be almost no "wet spots".
If you can wait or you don't care about dimples this is an option. I personally don't mind dimples, my reasons for installing are a bit different.

I didn't bother putting naptha on the last few and got some "wet spots" on the munsters lower playfield window. Which I've never seen before.

I've done just over 30 of them now.
One important thing I've learned is to cut out the magnet hole especially on the games with smaller magnets. It usually takes 5-7k plays for a hole to open up on the protector and the cracks start creeping out beyond that. replaced on recently because of this. Also, I've might of had 5 that didn't need some form of alteration. They all need to be clipped/ground down slightly, because they are going over a washer or under a rail etc...

It's actually really easy, took me like 5 minutes on a game I had.

I don't know about slower, usually after an first wax (after 50-100 plays) it plays a little to wild. It's harder to do drop/live catches on, but I like the challenge so I'm fine with it. Before the wax and intial break-in period it doesn't play that well. Did before and after video of the last game I did. That was the main thing I observed along with the ball having a bit more spin. Almost the same thing as if a regular playfield was super waxed.

nope, I took one off a star trek after 7k plays due to the magnet thing I wrote about in a previous post. The playfield still looked brand new. There might be a little dust/debris/wax that gets under it, but it's not going to kill anything and wipes off. All that talk about particles grinding in the field under a protector is stupid.
The playfield protector did it's job in the end.

There are some tweaks you need to do in order to get it to play right and so there are no ball hangup's (like adding plastic or building up to certain areas). I haven't done one to a dialed in, so I wouldn't know about that issue specifically. it all really depends on if the person installing takes the time or not.

yup I agree that just cleaning it with novus after you take the protective coating off will make a difference and is probably good enough. I still like using a small amount of wax though, but only after enough small scratches have formed on the plastic. it's all about personnel preference I guess.

one thing I've learned about certain plastic products, is if you get them rolled in shipping your screwed pretty much. I got some protectors a long time ago from a dude and they still don't sit flat after years. you could heat it like mentioned about, but its risky.
if they do come rolled lay them flat as soon as possible and you might stand a chance.