Well I can tell you a couple of things from experience (as a furniture repair technician) * Had a customer that "put on some poly" By the time she called me, about 20% of it was peeling off and the rest was a real pain to strip off. (She put it on because she wanted to change the sheen. What could have been a 30 minute rub-out job cost her hours of work of her and my time.) Poly has poor adhesion, but not unsurmountable with a proper bonding coat (e.g., shellac). It is more resistant to scratches, but less ability to be repaired when it does get scratched. * I went to a class on epoxy finishes. Enough experience, I'm not doing one. A professional custom furniture maker friend of mine took a job to do an epoxy finish on a bar top with embedded articles, I think it was tickets to race tracks, ball games or something like that. He ended up putting on three coats to get it to look good. He swore (at it) and said he'd never do another. There's always an issue with bubbles that don't come to the surface and it takes some special techniques to get them out. My instructor used a blow torch gently over the wet epoxy to get them to surface. You also have to do something special with the edges and corners. I've also repaired an epoxy finish that was scratched. Not fun. Rubbed it out but with a whole lot of effort. And if you even want to strip and refinish, good luck with an epoxy finish. * I've worked on some super tough catalyzed finishes. One that I recall got a chip in it. All the products and techniques that I use for touch up repairs did not work. The top coats just sat on top and the burn-in repairs did not bond. So it's not quite indestructible and definitely not repairable. * If you can live with cottage chic, maybe something like (pseudo) milk paint (lots of videos to watch on this site)

i suppose then it depends on the thickness and weight of the glass. ours is on a double dresser, where i put on sunscreen and where icy drinks are often set, on the way to the deck off of our master bedroom. so the glass is rather large, no way it would slither off. yes, you can see the discs. but the glass guy made a good effort for them to be symmetrical, so thats something. here's something tho..... if a drink is left on for a while, there is actually condensation under the glass surface. it goes away again but its enough that i have to make sure a drink isnt abandoned there, or i'd end up with condensate dripping on my dresser where i cant even get to it to wipe it up! still better than sunscreen drips, tho.

With use, it will get scratched. Avoid metallic objects placed on the surface, that includes silverware (use a placement) ladies' purses with metal glides on the bottom, placing boxes and packages on the top and dragging them across the surface.

Glass tables don't need "protecting". People sometimes put glass over wood to protect the wood. any table top will be dinged by dropping things on it including anything you might put over top the glass. I had a glass topped table on my patio fors everal years, stayed out there allw inter through snow ice etc. Bever got a scratch....but Iw as tired or trying to keep it clean in the summer.