I used it for iStat, weather, and calendar until I discovered GeekTool. It never made any sense to me that information I wanted to see constantly was hidden, and I had to keep popping this thing up on top of whatever I was doing to see it. I can see how some people like it better tucked away, and I don't know why Apple would get rid of Dashboard entirely. It just never suited me, though.
Incidentally, I have a lot of friends who use OSX, very casual, "go online, get email, facebook, netflix..." users. They didn't even know what the Dashboard was until I brought it up. I noticed one of them had the icon on his Dock, and asked if he accessed Dashboard using it. "What's a dashboard?" "That little speedometer looking icon." "Oh, I don't know what that is. I just left it there because it was there when I bought the computer." So he clicks it, and everyone in the room goes, "I don't get it."