Is there a way to get gnome-terminal on Lion? Is there a port of gnome-terminal, or a way to compile it, or some other program that is typographically comparable, under Lion?

There is a typographic difference, and I can't duplicate it in Terminal; I can't even get Terminal to serve up anti-aliased text.
The easiest way to install Gnome Terminal would be to use MacPorts. Once MacPorts is installed, run sudo port install gnome-terminal.

HomeBrew is a newer alternative to MacPorts that is growing in popularity, but Gnome Terminal isn't available in the base repository yet.