In our group, we save time by having each player deal out his starting hand, determine if he got a 3/4 or 2/5, buy his first two cards, and shuffle everything together.
At the time, we didn't really think about the ramifications of knowing if an opponent chose an attack card or a Potion.
But considering the first-player advantage, I'm inclined to keep that, as it does give later players a slight advantage in seeing the directions that the other players are heading.
Is that enough to offset first-player advantage? I doubt it, but it's a slight perk.