No philosophical debate here - a half-full dishwasher is also half-empty. Filling it up before putting it on means you waste less water and less power. If you have to wash those dishes right away put it on half-load, or even better dig out those rubber gloves and have some 'positive thinking' time at the sink.
I'm always forced to fill the dishwasher by my mum. So, this is an easy goal for me=)
The econo setting on my ancient dish washer does not get the dishes clean and I end up re-doing by hand if I use it. So I use the regular wash setting but I stop the dishwasher before the dry cycle.
I found a "quick wash" program on our old dishwasher that uses less water and leaves out the power hungry drying phase at the end. Just have to open the door and let the stuff air dry for a while. All comes out just as clean.
In addition, there is plenty of evidence to show that dishwashers use less water and less power then washing up by hand.
