i just bought an ipod nano myself (my first ipod ever), i dont have itunes at all, never have.
i can sync with MC 14.0.94 but as soon as the ipod is ejected it shows 0 songs and 0 playlists, yet you can see theres space taken up by the songs that were sync'd.
edit: ok, i installed itunes 9 (and all its associated crap that came along for the ride) like someone else did and just connected the ipod (no syncing, no itunes store) and it saw all the songs i had on it from MC and can now play them so i guess its going to be a two step process until you guys can figure out how to update the ipods database and i can ditch itunes - at least i dont have to return it now.
edit2: well that seems to only work the first time around, now its just not updating at all, its stuck with the first lot of songs from my test play list and wont update with the new ones i put on no matter what i do. i even tried restoring the ipod back to factory defaults and it hasnt helped.