if I bring my ear really close to the bottom part of the monitor (where the grill is) I can hear a very subtle noise. 10 cm away and I can't hear it anymore. This is definitely not a thing which disturbs me. My brightness is usually between 20-30% though.

No, not at all. But my ears aren't the best either. :) I'm really happy with the monitor, the only annoying thing is that it always wants to go into power save mode despite being used, but press the button once and it's fine.