Shaders are a programmers attempt to kill the texture artist. "Bahhh, no more detail, keep it bland, the code will do the lighting! Let displacement mapping do the 3d work; wheres my procedural textures?! Grrr..." Conspiracy I tell ya.

The problem is you have to create a second model that is much more detailed for the normal map. This takes longer then creating a detailed 2d texture. But, as programs advance further, perhaps this wont be such a big deal. I've no problem with the look of static lightmaps, and perfer them in many situations. Half-Life2 looked better and more realistic than Quake4, although Quake4 felt stylized, which is nice. Perhaps one day when you can have the texture resolutions found in Half-life2, combined with per-pixel lighting found in Quake4, things will look very realistic. Ever notice how low-res everything is in a game that went for the realstic feel(Oblivion), now imagine this same with very high resolutions, the plastic effect should be gone.