Forgive this novice question, I am basically a complete newbie to photography. Really, all I've ever used for most my of short life have been point-and-shoots; I've only recently started to pick up some curiosity.
Anyway, from what I've gathered, reading through many of the camera-basics questions, most serious photographers use the optical viewfinder as their primary tool to determine what makes a good shot. Live-preview isn't used much at all; it seems its help is to primarily set up the shot. Reading a Wikipedia article seems to confirm this view, adding that
[l]ive preview in DSLRs does not typically serve as their principal means of framing and previewing before taking a photograph, with this function still being mainly performed with optical viewfinder. While initially largely a novelty feature, live-preview functionality has become more common on DSLR cameras...
My questions are:
What are the myriad advantages of using the viewfinder over live preview, what does it help one accomplish in achieving the goals of photography?
What are some interesting ways serious photographers use live preview to take better shots they might have otherwise missed?