An article I read in a MTB mag some years ago comes to mind, when they were answering a letter about fingerless vs full finger gloves. Their reply was to take pruning sheers and cut off the parts of your hands/fingers that you do not want to cover with gloves, as they are not important, then get gloves for what was left.

My MTB shoes are all scuffed up, and I wonder what my feet would look like had I worn sandals. And I'm no hard core rider. Funny, but my feet never feel hot, even when it is pushing 100f, and I never worry about them even when I crash. Good cycling shoes are worth every penny and sandals are for beach cruisers doing walking speed IMO.