Well, that opened a can of worms. As the original poster I have to say that most replies have missed my point or gone off on a tangent.
I'm not saying EVF good, LCD bad. Nor am I advocating doing away with either on cameras large enough to support both. My sole point was that now that EVFs are pretty good and can display the relevant information (menus, histogram, etc.), then instead of trying to shoehorn an LCD onto the back of a mirrorless camera, why not try liberating that space to either make the camera smaller or better yet to have room to add more manual controls in the space the LCD occupies? An inch wide viewfinder is smaller than a 3 inch wide screen, which is also bigger than a few small buttons or dials.
It doesn't have to be compulsory, just something someone might like to try, maybe.
Geoff Bryant
www.cfgphoto.com