Well... the SKEW-T logP is one of the most information rich diagrams one can find. If you know how to really "read" one, you can figure out lift strength, height, cloudbase, and winds from a single view at a glance. It takes me about 5 seconds to look at one to decide if it's a good day or not. That said, the modern interfaces in XCSkies, DrJack, etc. allow you to get a broader view of weather at a macro level including fantastic trend information. "North looks like it should have higher bases and more Cu than South" or "it's obvious that the models think the encroaching front shuts things down by late afternoon." HRRR is becoming incredibly useful for my forecasting as well.

So, the answer for me is "Yes, it's still very important." But since they are a point forecast, they aren't the only thing I look at.