JoeV
Thin Air, Bright Sun
Seeing as 99.9% of the most iconic and important B&W work since photography was invented was done with an optical viewfinder, I can't really agree with your statement.
While I wouldn't call my B&W work iconic or important by any stretch of the imagination, I have done extensive shooting with such a setup, having owned the first mirrorless camera, the Lumix G1, since its inception in 2008, and can attest to the efficacy of live view in monochrome.
And I would offer that the 99.9% of work done with optical viewfinders was because the technology didn't yet exist for live-view EVFs. If it had, they would have used it; as more and more people are now discovering. Which gets to the point that the best years of photography are ahead of us, not behind us. Live-view EVFs bring the act of mental previsualization from being something in the realm of the imagination to the realm of the visual. That's groundbreaking, in my view; but hasn't yet been fully appreciated because the majority of professionals are still using optical viewfinders. Just wait.
~Joe