I think they're still around, and they probably have the "on-the-ground" knowledge that's useful, maybe from feedback of their customers, or network of local friends (some small agencies focus on particular destinations, probably because they travelled there once and liked it so much they became an expert of the region, and big agencies just have partners in popular destinations). Compare that to if you check out a hotel on booking.com, the ratings are all exaggerated, even if you rate everything as crap, their scoring system will make your final rating about a 6.0 (don't quote me on that). Not to mention review-buying or faking.

As for flights, the last few times I tried booking from a booking como5any through Skyscanner where the price was 20% lower, I got all the way to entering my CC number and clicking "Buy now" only for the page to tell me, "Oops, tickets for this price are no longer available, do you want to buy for [price advertised on the airline website]?"... Hell fuck no!