They serve a purpose for somethings like image mapping and maybe flash, but I think that is about the extent of it.
Any designer that uses solely wysiwyg editors and doesn't know how to code in HTML should be fucking shot and taken out of this business. It is like a car sales man pretending to be a mechanic. May look like good on the outside but it is complete shit on the inside and he is fucked if he needs to fix anything..
www.cutehtml.com has been my companion for 5 years, it was the very first thing I learned when I got in this biz, and the first and most important thing I recommend to people in this biz..
I can't stand those fuckers that are too lazy to learn it and go for the shortcut.. and I fucking HATE dreamweaver.. what a waste of code that peice of shit is..
May as well go to geocities and use their prissy little user friendly webpage creator for all I am concerned