I agree with you on display quality. I picked up a ThinkPad x220 for not much money, but I swapped an IPS panel into it because the TN panel it came with was really, really awful. I don't even hate all TN panels - the one one my old MacBook Air was quite decent.
When you start getting up toward MBP prices, you can find ThinkPads with decent displays. Even some of the older W series came equipped with a 3k matte IPS, which I found quite nice. I prefer the W series keyboards over the new MBP keyboards as well, but I found the trackpad on my W540 to be ridiculously awful. It's not exactly cheap to buy one of these machines on eBay, but they aren't crazily expensive either.
When you start getting up toward MBP prices, you can find ThinkPads with decent displays. Even some of the older W series came equipped with a 3k matte IPS, which I found quite nice. I prefer the W series keyboards over the new MBP keyboards as well, but I found the trackpad on my W540 to be ridiculously awful. It's not exactly cheap to buy one of these machines on eBay, but they aren't crazily expensive either.