> I very rarely do any flash photography

That was the case here too, until I got a good enough camera (D60). Using the built-in flash on a tiny point-and-shoot just gives tons of red-eye and not terribly good effect.

But even the built-in ETTL on the D60 (and 10D) is a huge leap above that. I now use flash as much as possible, mostly as "fill" lighting to brighten faces and help even out overly contrastly scenes (eg. anything close with sunlight involved). The net effect on my photography has been nothing short of total revelation.

But since most of my lenses block (or partially block) the built-in flash, I frequently find myself lugging along my bulky shoe-mount external flash for use with them -- thus the regret for not having purchased the 24-85mm.

Cheers