Standby vs complete shutdown?

this bothers me. I often connect my Fuze to upload new files, I also occasionally use it as a storage device for regular data. Everytime I connect it to the computer, charging begins. This means I rarely have my battery emptied completely, which , as I have heard, would be healthy for its life expectancy.

the question is - with the kind of batteries installed in Fuze, does this really change anything in a visible way? Does it really make a difference if I recharge only after the battery is empty, or maybe recharging more often isn’t that harmful after all? If it is, it would be nice to be able to optionally disable charging on connection. 

I’m worried because I’m extremely satisfied with the device and I don’t want to get rid of it after 3 years of usage only due to battery life… I don’t care about all the latest gadgets, I’ve had my previous Creative player for a few years until it broke. I only care about data capacity, sound quality and ease of use - and Fuze is impressive in all these respects.