If it makes you feel any better, most temp gauges are really just analog idiot lights. Once the car warms up, they just sit dead center unless the car is really overheating. So the actual info conveyed isn't much more than an idiot light. As for the warm-up... well, aside from a few seconds for the oil system to pressurize and begin to circulate, modern cars really don't need a warm-up before normal driving. The critical factor for whether it's really safe to get on it is oil temp anyways.
It does suck that they are getting rid of a gauge though... if anything, I would think the trend towards more electronics under the hood would result in more info being conveyed to the driver, not less. I would've thought by now that every car would come equipped with something like a scangauge from the factory... just a couple-line LCD display where you could cycle through various readings.
