Jeff, I simply set Focus Assist on. That gives me FA/peaking all the time without having to half-depress the shutter. Then, half-depressing turns off peaking, but by then you know what you want.
I'm currently shooting Ap Priority with a Canon 50 1.4, and do have AEL to toggle with Fn1 (in MY1, btw). Once I lock it, though, the operative word is LOCK. Let's say I want to shoot f1.4@800ISO at an object in a window, and get a /1520 reading--perfect--then turn to a darker object at the same distance; there AEL@1/1520 is no good. So it must be toggled off again UNLESS I want a consistent exposure regardless of light. Which, in my practice, is usually dumb. AEL, then, may cause more trouble than it's worth to assign it Fn real estate.
My muddling advice is to go slowly, get used to the basic stuff you can do from the menu, and gradually add functionality. Over-assigning functions to My Settings or Fn or Adj that you have to remember before focusing & pressing the shutter is like editing before you finish writing a sentence (let alone a paragraph).
Have fun! Get the VF2, it's worth the $, and gives you waist-level view when you want it.
