It is always good to have 'motor in body' at lease that allowed you to have a wider range of lense choices. Specially the cheap and good 50mm f1.8 other you have to pay 4x the price to get a Sigma 30mm f1.4 (motor in lens).
yups.. and nikon is playing catch up by slowing introducing and shifting away from the older "motor in body " lenses and migrating to "motor in lens" like Canon. D40 is just the start.