I don't love that this is necessary, and I wonder how much it will cost without an AppleCare subscription. If you have to pay $15/mo for coverage and the layer is likely to need replacing after a year, then you're looking at $170 between the monthly fees and the $20 charge. Of course, you'd also get the other coverage that comes along with AppleCare. Maybe they'll make non-AppleCare replacements expensive enough to make it seem like a no-brainer to get it since you'll want to replace the screen layer sooner or later.
I also wonder how many more bad-news bits they'll drip out in the weeks before the Duo is available for pre-order.