Everyone's different and I would suggest you go and try it out. I personally didn't like the touch screen and was concerned about abusing it.
I was looking for a small good quality P&S and wound up getting the new Nikon S710 14.5MP which allows for some manual settings changes (that Im used to with my D80) A,S,P, ISO..etc.
Optical VR Image Stabilization, Auto adjusts up to ISO 3200 ISO sensitivity can be set to ISO 6400 and ISO 12800. I got it for $229. checking around..
You can check it out here with a good explanation: http://www.abesofmaine.com/item.do?item=NKCPS710K&id=NKCPS710K&l=EVERYPRICE