It was not a factor when I bought the E510 (IS was the factor that pushed me into that one) but I do use it quite frequently for "over the head" crowd work. Also I am totally addicted to it for all tripod work. It's particularly useful to be able to put a set of grid lines onto the screen and make sure that everything is lined up

In one of the media scrums around an unfortunate celebrity I saw a newsman using articulated live view over the heads of the other togs and he was clearly enjoying a competitive advantage.

Edit: In the old Rolleiflex days did not clever togs turn their cameras upside down and at arms length to get one over their Leica rivals?

Roger