WEP is better than nothing in the same sense that if your roof gets blown off, a tarp is better than nothing; but it is still not a solution to the problem.

A couple points about public hotspots:
1) The usage of encryption at the wireless level is the choice of the wireless provider, not you. So if confidentiality is an issue for you, then you need these other solutions.
2) Confidentiality is not your only issue when using a public internet access (wired or wireless). In my case, it is pretty far down the priority list. My notebook normally sits behind a firewall. It normally runs networks servers (nfs, ssh, etc) and does not run its own firewall. When I connect to a public hotspot, I have a configuration that starts no services and runs a firewall. Protecting my self from network based attacks is more important to me then protecting the confidentiality of my web surfing.

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