Well of course a wall mount can be moved, the holes filled with putty and painted over with a little touch-up paint. But to me, it seems like a lot of work if you just want to move the monitor a couple inches one way or the other.
Plus I note Rainwater specifically expressed in his opening post misgivings about using a wall mount. In any case, pretty sure Rainwater understood the point. But just to clarify, wall mounting is a very viable option but it is, more or less, a
semi-permanent option. But yes, a wall mount can be moved with relative ease. Sorry if me saying "never ever" caused confusion.
Unless the desk is extremely flimsy with a paper thin top (and please understand I don't really mean as thin as a piece of paper
), stability is hardly a problem. But if concerned, or if you have one of those nice glass top desks, it really is simple to reinforce the mount with metal plates or pieces of wood. There are even nice looking factory made
reinforcement bracket mount plates designed just for that very purpose.
If still worried about crushing a flimsy desktop, there are freestanding VESA stands that sit on top of the desk like
this one. There are dozens to choose from though I linked to that one because it "appears" the upright bar can be oriented vertically - perpendicular to the desktop - instead of leaning forward pushing the monitor even further from the wall. However, because it still sits "on" the desk and in from the back edge of the desk a little, I am not sure it would position the monitor significantly closer to the wall than your current stand. Sadly, that dimension is not stated.
Should you decide on a desktop stand, note that many only support up to 24" monitors and that one only up to 27". If you plan on moving up to a 32" inch monitor in the future, you may need one like
this. Of course, the biggest disadvantage (IMO) of a freestanding stand that sits on the desk is it takes up a lot of valuable desktop real estate compared to a rear edge mount or wall bracket type.
