Well, my first 140 pictures with my new Nikon D60 was a rousing success. Although I was initially shocked that the D60 had no live preview, that didn't matter much when I started using the camera. With it, I was able to take pictures with great depth-of-field, some where the timing of the shot was critical (using the low shutter lag of the D60), and where a long optical zoom was helpful. There was one picture where not having the live preview was awkward (taking a close-up picture of a flower), but I didn't miss it any other times.
So the current verdict is that it's a great camera. I'm looking forward to taking many more pictures with my new fancy Nikon D60.