A couple of things.
One reason super zoom cameras appear to have such a wide depth of field is the size of the sensor along with the focal length of the lens. While lenses are often listed by their 35mm equivalents, unless you are using a full frame DSLR you aren't shooting with the lens you think you are. Since the physical size of the imager is much smaller than a 35mm film frame, the actual lens focal length you are shooting is "wider" than you think. Since a 50mm lens renders the same DOF at a given aperture, it doesn't know or care what size the imager is. Since a small imager is only capturing a fraction of the lens' field of view, the DOF will be greater the smaller the imager size. This is one reason why pros who use 35mm full frame imagers were so happy when the full size imagers came along. Their 35mm lenses were finally acting like they had when shooting 35mm film. Wide angle lenses were wide, and the full size imager allowed a narrow DOF again for portraits, etc.
All this is complicated, and more technical than many people, including pro shooters, care to think about. Bottom line is: The smaller the camera imager, the greater the apparent depth of field will be produced for a given lens focal length. This is a great advantage to model photography for super zoom/bridge style cameras, and the small imager DSLRs.
As far as eye level viewfinders go, I won't use a camera without one, nor use a camera without a good one. That's why I've stuck with the super zoom/bridge type small imager cameras. They have EVFs while many sophisticated smaller cameras have abandoned them.
Regarding a simple studio lighting set-up, don't bother with trying to find daylight blue photoflood bulbs in a camera store. That's important only if you are still shooting film. Since digital cameras offer white balance choices, any type of bulb will work just fine. Even the lights on your work bench. You just have to tell the camera if you are using incandescent or florescent lights as your source. Of course, you have to remember to reset you camera to daylight before you shoot outdoors or with flash again.
Very good model photos can be taken with just about any camera and lights as long as the background is kept plain and preferably not white. A plain light blue, pale gray or similar background helps avoid exposure problems that crop up when using a glaring white backdrop.
Using two lights at 45 degree angles to the camera/subject line, render acceptable model photos most of the time. With experience, slight adjustments of one light's angle and distance from the model can help with different subjects. Try to use two lights using the same type of bulb for a consistent light balance and color capture.
If you want to be an advanced photo hobbyist as well as a model builder, have at it! But photo gear ain't cheap and for many folks, it is better spending the cash to improve the quality of model build you'd want to photograph anyway.
A good photo of a good model will beat a lousy photo of a great model every time!