Nikon has introduced D80 firmware 1.11 and D200 firmware 2.01. Both are specifically targeted at removing Dead Battery Syndrome (DBS, see below for description). Thank you, Nikon. This makes four cameras for which Nikon has said they've applied a fix (D3, D300, D200, and D80). Meanwhile, Fujifilm has done the same thing by updating the S5 Pro firmware to version 1.11, ostensibly for the same fix.
Now, about my reported D700/Tamron DBS interaction ;~). Since reporting my findings I've received two other reports of the same problem on the D700 and about a half-dozen emails which say they haven't encountered the problem with the same combination. Indeed, the same lens on my D3 doesn't trigger this issue. Still, I'll point out that DBS isn't a 100% thing. When DBS first surfaced big time with the D300, I didn't encounter it with six different D300 bodies and dozens of lenses, yet another photographer I know had several different bodies that went dead with almost any lens he tried. Nikon's likely to disclaim any problem from my report because it's with a third party lens. Still, I wonder whether the D700 firmware has the same fix in it that the other cameras now do. I suspect not.