I find myself in the same dillema --made especially bad by my admiration for those guys who seem to always have an interesting bass line to carpet the bottom. Toward that end, I am taking the longer road and just learning the tunes, though I do wish I could "fake it" a bit more ---thanks for the link Susan!

I've played with a guy that does that "windshield-wiper" strum and, though it works (rhythmically) it sounds so "un-right"

I do normally fake it like M Ted suggests(amazing how often that guy's advice is so dead-on) with the 5chords (yeah, I know they ain't really 5ths). The neutered, not major/minors. Here's a few ways to play 'em
G = 3X0033 or 355033
C = 33X013
D = X00235 or X00588
F = 133011
heck, with those 4 all you need is a capo
A = 002255 (remember the C-A-G-E-D discussion? this is the "G" form of "A"

...oh, and I didn't write these out for your edification, Mark -- you probably already know these -- I'm just always thinkin' there's other folks who read the music threads here, who may be too shy to ask what the "power chord" reference meant.