Ah Ha! Here's the confusion: You're in list view and I think those of us who are unhappy are using the 'expanded view'. Under the expanded view, you used to be able to see the difference between posts and now you cannot. I had been using expanded view for so long I had forgotten that list view even existed.
So, yeah. The 'read state' of Google Reader is half-baked in expanded view.
So, yeah. The 'read state' of Google Reader is half-baked in expanded view.