I like plates that are shorter, ie. Have 5 or 6 characters. IMO if it has 7 digits it can just look almost too standard.
Me too. We have single digit prefix plates on both our daily cars and I bought similar ones for our kids when they were born, knowing that when they get to driving age, they will be very hard to come by. I know that means I'm paying £50 a year to keep them both on retention, but I think it's worthwhile.
New style private plates don't look like anything special to me, especially if you have to point out to people what it means.