Which Nikon bodies don`t give this error message?

Thanks for confirming, Matthew. I guess the camera was mechanically capable but Nikon just didn't change the firmware for viewfinder mode to enable dynamic changes in DoF preview with E lenses (which is, I suppose, a fair bit of work of the camera can't do it with other lenses).

There weren't many E lenses around when the D3200 and D7100 were launched; I'll be interested if anyone with, say, a D7500 could see if anything has changed.

Maybe we (I?) should submit an article to the site so this information gets recorded somewhere for posterity.