Valadian
You made an interesting comment about Mr. Rig. Without a doubt a camera can easily take over your diving, as it can on the surface as well.
If you are going to be traveling then the amount of space the camera gear can take up maybe be significant in your decision. Remember that powerful strobe, its also very bulky and requires a lot of batteries. Add to that the tray, arm, spare strobe, battery chargers etc. It may require its own case.
That's what I liked about the Nikonos, not a great land camera but Ok for the odd snaps. Great underwater particularly for shooting macro, even made me look quite competent.
Now I am just starting out with digital underwater, vacation in about 10 weeks. Like you I did not know what to buy, asked loads of questions, searched online etc. It is a very difficult decision to make.
I decided on the Oly 8080 because it was big enough for me to use as a normal camera, yes I did say big enough. I tried to use the small cameras but found they were so difficult to hold, the buttons were so small, just to fiddly, to use as a camera. The Oly was 80% of the size of my Nikons, comfortable to hold, decent lens, more than enough pixels.
Will it work out underwater, I will just have to wait and see.