Over-using the sustain sounds just as bad as under-using it, IMHO..... As long as you restrict yourself to never moving your hand far enough to need the sustain pedal to cover the 'jump', sure, you'll be fine, but I hate to hear someone so arbitrarily restrict what they play just because they don't want to spend a bit of time to learn a very simple technique. Just because some others overuse a feature doesn't mean you HAVE to!