Emm.. I am not good in writing story, but let me help you decide with my small suggestion.
if you are looking for something powerful and could bring you till far away in photography journey. D7000 is the answer.
where as for D300s only wins in term of solidity and focus point, if you are new in photography you don't need that.
get D7000 save more money buy a better lens instead.

camera doesn't really give you much benefit buy lens does.
I get it from my experience.

I myself is a noob entry-level camera user.

I don't think you can get d7k with lens in case you are resist with your current budget, you might want to get 60D

stretch it and you wouldn't regrets it is not that hard to learn the settings anyway.