Yes ventilator is right, you have to multiply the shadow with the diffuse and specular lighting, and not to the final image as 3dgs does (though this is the fastet method, for better shadows you need the render the scene again (if you render the scene already twice, for example for a depth map, there will be no slowdown)).
You can also screenspace blur the stencil shadows, and there are algorithmen for correct penumbra softshadows.
For larges scenes only lit by the sun, i would definitly prefer shadowmapping.
But for indoor scenes with more than 1 pointlights stencil shadows are still better, especially if only your actor and enemys need dynamic shadows.
Also point lights, area lights, tube lights etc are easier to do with volume shadows then with shadowmapping. So i think stencil shadows are still suitable for some applications.

Btw, i would'nt say that shadowmapping is easier then stencil shadows, especially if you need to implement algorithm to enhance the quality of the shadowmaps like psm, lispm,tsm, pssm etc, you need strong mathematical skills to understand these thinks.