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I tend to use apps in a nonmodal, parallel way. That's why I stopped using widgets. Widgets are, and I dare say it, non-Mac-like. Most of them aren't resizable. Standard keyboard shortcuts don't work. Context menus don't work. You can't access other applications when you're in Dashboard. I know there are ways to free widgets from the evil twin Dashboard universe, but I can't be bothered.
Take stock quotes, for example. I can either keep pressing the Dashboard key to check a limited amount of quote info on a tiny square of screen space, or I can just keep a large, spacious, customized, information-filled stock page in a Safari tab. Thanks to OS X shortcuts, no matter what application you are in you can reach any Safari tab in just a couple of keystrokes.
As screens get bigger with higher resolutions, it's now more and more possible to keep relevant information visible, alongside your main applications. Dashboard widgets directly attack this way of working, by forcing you out of your workspace and cramming you into those little tiles of incomplete information. It's extremely ironic that Apple wants to sell us a 30" display and use tiny, limiting Dashboard widgets. I only use widgets for info that I don't need to see all the time and that isn't already available as a web page. But if you need functionality the Web can't provide, why not just quick-open a small standalone utility with Spotlight, a utility that is probably more capable than any 3 widgets put together? For example, I can use one of those wireless-network monitor widgets, or I can Spotlight-launch iStumbler in just a few keystrokes and see much more information.
For all these reasons, Dashboard is hardly ever launched around here.
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I only use them occasionally
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If instead I can hit Ctrl-Space, type F for Firefox, then Ctrl-L for the location field and
g wiki foobarI am looking at the foobar article much faster than I ever could opening up the Wikipedia widget with Dashboard.