Assuming we don't need to send any custom programming to the gps all we need is a receive pin.

That's a big assumption. There are some neat tricks you can do if you can send to some GPS receivers, too, which I don't want to preclude myself from:
-switching map datums. i can think of a small number of cases where I'd want NAD27 instead of NAD83 or WGS84 (which are effectively the same unless...)
-RTCM correction data so you can do DGPS. This is effectively how the dgpsip support in gpsd works. I'd have to set up a beacon to make it work usefully for me but I can think of cases where being able to make precise measurements would be useful with what this would make possible. Want to know if your odometer is properly calibrated?
-and more simply, some receivers support turning some sentences on and off. if you can figure out what receiver you have (and the ones that send proprietary sentences will help you guess; the proprietary protocols will often just tell you) you could for instance turn off the satellite information if you weren't on the satellite screen, so you would only need to read the information you needed.