Is there a place for it today?
Edit: For the sake of the argument, let's include tangential ideas like graceful degradation, unobtrusive JavaScript, etc.
The biggest argument was accessibility, but it turns out people with extra needs don't want a poorly maintained version of the page with a ton of missing features. So instead additional aria tips were added, website operators encouraged (or required by law) to hit A-AAA, to explain parts of the page, combined with assistive technologies getting much better.
The other big argument was in essence "Build first for IE11, then add Firefox/WebKit features on top." Which naturally went away when IE died and evergreen browsers took over.