My host doesn't support .htaccess changes - Is my site doomed?

It's not doomed, I know, but how big an issue is this?

[Kurgano]

I've gone to great lengths to render a recent site I worked on spider friendly. Removed session ID's, validation, removed redundant links, improved layout, copyright etc....

but

My host won't allow mod-rewrite or .htaccess file upload, I can't convert the dynamic links to static links. My site has phpbb forums and "gasp" wordpress to make my life easier but the content is original. Both phpbb and wordpress leave questionmarks in the URL.

Google doesn't seem to rank ANY site with a dynamic url very highly in any search result pages, i've been checking other sites. They get indexed but rank poorly or not in the top 10 for most searches if the url has a questionmark.

the site is new, I have high hopes for it, but this feels like a very big issue for the future of the site. Search traffic is the best kind for this particular topic.

Ideas besides get a new host? (yahoo! is current host)
The competition hasn't cleaned up their site, most don't even validate, but they do have mod-rewrite. Should I be worried for the long run?

[wideaware]

I think content is king. If your content is good, you will get ranked eventually. But not having the .htaccess can create problems in other areas, like dealing with spam, includes inside .html files, setting a custom error document, disallowing access to certain directories, etc.

All of it can probably be dealt with one way or the other, but you could also be using that time to add content or go to the beach.

Try speaking with the hosting to see if they can allow it, or consider other options in any case. Just evaluating the choices you have may help you make a decision. If you decide against moving and don't run into problems too, you need to do nothing.