Except when you have to wrap it in parentheses and tack a .ToList() onto the end of it, or use something outside the subset that the query syntax supports, it starts looking considerably more ugly than chaining the functions together.

The obvious answer is don't wrap a good query in parentheses, use a second line:

    var somestuff = from x in someList
                    where x.Id > 7
                    select x.Name;

    var somestuffList = somestuff.ToList();

For what it is worth, I personally consider ToList() harmful. I've done a lot of LINQ performance work and the first place I start is with a project-wide search for ToList and start to delete and/or replace calls to ToList to things more appropriate. List is more often than not the wrong data structure for a query result and I've seen too many people use ToList as a debugging crutch without understanding its performance impact.