I couldnt disagree with you more about the importance of helmets. here is a little long, but nice article about helmets, the dot, ece, and snell standards... maybe you are familiar with them, maybe youre not, but here it is anyway:
http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/gearbox/motorcycle_helmet_review/
I'll spare you the reading, but here is a excerpt that I found very interesting that I would like to call your attention to:
Quote:

First, about half of all serious motorcycle accidents happen when a car pulls in front of a bike in traffic. These accidents typically happen at very low speeds, with a typical impact velocity, after all the braking and skidding, below 25 mph. This was first revealed in the Hurt Report but has been recently backed up by two other studies, a similar one in Thailand and especially the COST 327 study done in the European Union, where people have fast bikes and like to ride very quickly on some roads with no speed limits at all.

Furthermore, I can state from personal experience that when I went riding with my friend, he had one of those stupid half shell novelty helmets on (he rides a harley). I insisted that if he was going to go riding with me, that he wear a full face DOT/SNell helmet, and since I wouldnt stop bitching about him not wearing a full face, he finally conceded ( although he complained about impairing his vision, etc etc, the same stuff you are saying) and decided to wear my spare helmet ( it fit him quit well, actually).
Long story short, he crashed that day on ortega because of some rock that was in the middle of the road, and here is what happend to my helmet that I loaned him...

He wasnt speeding, he was actually going around a curve around 30 mph and didnt see the rock that clipped his front tire. You may try to make the argument that the helmet impaired his vision, etc., but he did say flat out to me " i had no fucking clue what hit me, and didnt see the rock until after I crashed".
Snell /DOT helmet $160.00
Costs of Crashing your Harley: $6000
Still having your face at the end of the day: Priceless.