I certainly haven't been on the forums all that long but I do feel that they may have deteriated lately in the last couple of months (I used the forums a lot when I wasn't a member).
Regardless, the forums are basically my only way of interacting with the cubing community and it has motivated me to practice more consistently. The forums have been able to answer a lot of my questions when I was struggling to find the answer (for example relating to hardware). So I think for new cubers, the forums can be very helpful in learning more about the world of speed-cubing, or at least they were for me.