The thing I like about the maintenance plans is the fact that I get all of the history for the sub-plans without having to implement anything myself.

A lot of my maintenance plans end up being nothing more than Execute SQL Tasks. For example, I use this technigue to perform either a full integrity check (weekly) - or a physical only no index check daily. Don't have time every day to perform a full check - but this way I get something.

The biggest problem with maintenance plans (especially the wizards), is the fact that those using the Wizards have no idea what the tasks do and assume that performing them all is the best thing to do.

I don't think it is the maintenance plans that are causing the problems - it is the people using them without understanding what maintenance needs to be done that is the problem.