Deuce,
I'm a 4th-year applying to otolaryngology, so I can try to answer your questions from what I've seen or overheard. Hopefully an actual ENT resident will be able to expand on my comments, and offer more perspective.
Overall, otolaryngology is a nice balance between office time and OR time, and of younger and older patients. Otolaryngology is, to me, a surprisingly broad field, treating diseases from hearing loss to allergies to cancer, to name a few.
As far as the early match, I think the biggest difference it makes is that you have to plan ahead in order to get all of your recommendations in on time (i.e. do your sub-internship early in the year). You also might consider working with a private ENT doc in your community during your 3rd year, because you will get a much different experience in a private practice than in an academic setting.
ENT is a surgical residency and, as such, requires long hours. I don't think you can get adequate training in any kind of surgery working only 40-50 hours a week. However, I would say that it tends to be less grueling than a neurosurgery, general surgery, or orthopedic residency, and maybe on-par with a urology residency. One thing that I think is telling about the otolaryngology residency is that many (a vast majority) of the residents at my school have been able start families during their training, and they seem to balance their home/work lives pretty well. I think this is harder to do in some other surgical specialties.
There seems to be a real change in residency from the 2nd through the 5th year. At my school, 2nd and 3rd years take in-house call whereas senior residents take home call. Senior residents spend most of their time in the OR whereas junior residents spend more time on floor work, although they make it into the OR when they can. So the further you are in your training, the better it gets.
Let me know if you have more questions...good luck!
