Before Tiger came out I was like, Widgets are overhyped. Then when Tiger came out I played around with Widgets, installed a few, actually used a couple for a bit. Now, I have to say, I really don't use them.
It's not that there aren't useful widgets, it's just that I already use self-contained apps to do a given task (like printing envelopes). And since I use keyboard shortcuts to launch apps (ikey), the quick access benefit of Dashboard isn't really part of it.
If Dashboard were removed one day, I wouldn't miss it. Really, all it is is a repository for web pages that act as self-contained, well, widgets. As I understand it, the widgets are just little Safari windows in effect. Yes? No?