If you have to carry people and their stuff on a regular basis then the wagon makes sense. You really give up little, if any, as far as driving experience goes. Honestly, you'll really only notice it's a wagon when you look in the mirror. I really enjoy my e46 touring. My next car will be an e91 for certain. Of course, I'm only slightly biased.
As far as resale goes, I don't know about actual value of Tourings, I haven't gone through that yet, but any time I've wandered in to a dealership, the sales reps tell me they've got people lined up for my car.
They never said that about my Acura.