Personally I think the new Pathfinder is much like Porsche building the Cayenne- afficianados hate it, but it provides profit for the company and allows them to continue building Boxter S Spyders, GT-2s, GT 3 RSs or in Nissan's case, GT-Rs, 350zs and probably Xterras.
If that's what allows them to continue making models we love, I'm all for it. You have to sell Camrys to make LFAs. I do however wish they came up with a new name, and killed off the Pathfinder nomenclature, because I think we know an off-roady Pathfinder would probably cut into the Xterra's market. Unless it suddenly became a luxo-boat like the Grand Cherokee is to the Wrangler, in which case, I'm sure someone would complain.