Well I will go into my panel with a Crystalio II with RGBhv, as I do with the curent version, and use stripper inbetween source and scaler so the analogue outs are not turned off, as I agree unless you get 1:1 mapping and no frame rate conversion you really aren't getting the most out of a scaler.
If you can wait for the new 1080p panel it may be worth it, Panasonic have said it will be around half the price of the current 65PHD7, whether that is the same over here we will have to see. But I would think that the 65PHD8 will be an awesome screen too.