Yeah, pricey, I know. If I lived in the US, I might consider getting one (they are $650 minimum in the UK).
I personally feel that as long as games run with reasonable loading times and framerates, I'm not so worried about graphics, and it sounds like you have a similar view. (****, I still play games on my 486, and think a lot of them are better than some of the graphics driven crap that gets passed of as games these days).
as for the new CPU architecture worry, don't forget that prices will be sky high when they are released. My philosophy is that buying anything less than 6 months after release is silly because:
1)huge markup, as there are enough people who just want the best, and are quite happy getting robbed
2)it takes a while for people to iron out flaws, update BIOSes etc.
3)it takes a while for people to review the stuff, and find out if it is actually worth getting.