Hi leinad
You may find it useful to read the finderscope article in the latest Australian Sky & Telescope that came out in the last few weeks.
Yes, many people are very happy using the "red dot" type finder which are non-magnifying or "unit power". Problems are:- 1) because they are non-magnifying, you may not be seeing the object of interest and having to put the dot on a "blank" part of the sky where you expect it to be, relative to adjacent stars (of course, you often don't see the fainter/smaller objects in an 8x or 9x finderscope also), and 2) when your scope is pointed to a high elevation, it's a bit of effort to twist and turn to get your eye in the right location to use the finder.
Practice using the finderscope with both eyes open. The eye on the sky also "sees" the cross hairs and therefore you can fairly quickly move the scope until the object you can see in the sky (bright star/planet usually) comes into the finderscope field of view in the other eye.
Remember to always start the search with a wide field of view - eyepiece of, say 26mm focal length or longer.
Another option is to use a green laser pointer as a finder. There is a lot to be said about this - laser safety, relevant State laws/permits, performance in cold weather, interference if there are other nearby observers/astroimagers (search for threads on IIS). I've found it to be the quickest way to point my scope to the required part of the sky.
I have a sense that its a bit like terrestrial maps and directions - some people have a very good sense of direction and some people don't. The sky is easier because you can usually see most of it at once, but you often cannot see everything on land at once. What is most disconcerting is when there is a lot of moving cloud cover. One gets glimpses of stars through the holes and wonders - which star is that, which constellation? Very confusing!
But when you can see the whole sky, I find it very easy to consult a chart and say to myself - OK, the object I want is about 40% of the way from that star to that one over there, and then up "a bit" towards that star. Then it is easy to move the scope until the laser is pointing to that area, then go to the 30mm eyepiece and compare what I see, with a good chart or planetarium program. It's much the same using a unit power finder. A bit more complicated using a straight-through finderscope with both eyes open and much more difficult using a right-angle finderscope where you are not looking at the sky naked-eye at the same time. I would recommend that a right-angle finderscope always needs to be used in combination with a unit-power finder or laser finder. (Unless, of course, you become an expert at getting behind your scope and sighting along it to the part of the sky you want. This is harder than it sounds! Eg. first time binocular users are inevitably looking too low in elevation when they look at an object in the sky, then lift the binoculars to their eyes.)
Of course, one day I'll buy an Argo Navis and have computerised "push-to" on my dob and I'll be laughing and spending more time observing than searching. I do the opposite at the moment, but treat it as part of the apprenticeship - I still enjoy the thrill of the "hunt" and the exultation of the "find"!
Enjoy
Eric