Wear and tear on the power button? Really?
On average I hit that button probably a hundred times a day, it's going to be used by everyone a lot, I really would not worry about it. HTC knows this, unless there turns out to a be a defect in the build, it will not give you any problems.
And you have to press it every time you lock/unlock the phone anyways, whats the difference between that and holding it for a few seconds to get that screen to pop up?