I have a Garmin 76CSx. Love it, it is handheld and waterproof. It also floats.
Why I would agree that in the true picture, this does not provide a lot of value as I am never truly in a situation of life or death (to this point anyway), I like playing with it.
I plot alot of points and then download them to the computer...call it geeky, but I get some level of enjoyment of plotting my points on a map and keeping a history, notes of success, ect.
On untraveled river with a timeline to get to a certain point, I do find it very useful to plan stopping/camping points so that I do not show up at the take out 4 hrs early and waste precious weekend time by not having the info I need.
All in all, I would buy the 76CSx again if I was looking for a GPS.