I don't buy them b/c they are expensive. We don 't do professional pictures for the same reason. Amateur camera photo pics for us I hadn't thought of them as not being "in ".
One of DH's work friends has a wall in his office with each of his 3 kids' school pictures- the good, the bad, the relics. They're framed identically lined up so that the oldest is on the bottom and all 3 kindie pics are in one horizontal line, all firsts grades in another, etc. It's pretty cool.
I have two of on my desk from DS- 1st grade and 11th. He doesn't photograph well.