Thanks for the replies guys.
It's kinda what I thought on all counts.

I currently use a SpaceExplorer and had an offer of a cheap(ish) stepup to the SpacePilot Pro. Obviously, already having a 3d Mouse, I was looking for what extra I could do with it beyond the handful of extra buittons. The LCD is potentially interesting, but I too had thoughts of 'useless' and 'gimmick' floating around in my head :-)

I think I'll stay put :-)

Cheers.
Gav.