Much use by those who study PPs in depth and pick them on the basis of what for 99% of players are minor and even obscure mechanical reasons, probably true. OTOH the vast majority of players I know will pick their PP's based on fluff. IME players usually mill through the choices and pick a few likely possibilities and then perhaps, depending on the player, look at the mechanics to at least make sure the PP will work with their character.
I think what I see for crunch coming out of WotC, especially more as time goes on now, is not aimed at or even meant to really interest players who are going to insist on ever more potent combinations of options. It is designed strictly with the intent of appealing to the average player that is into creating a cool story for their character and needs some nice fluff and will want powers that work reasonably and aren't noticeably inferior. I also think they spend a LOT of time looking at the fluff/story aspect of things and there simply isn't the time or eyeballs to mill through 300+ other PPs and determine that there's one that gives a +9 for a similar effect vs the +6 this one has. There is simply no way content can be produced at an affordable price like that. Nor, clearly, is everyone even agreed on what is the exact baseline for comparison.