For some kinds of content, you want that skim-and-skip effect, for example the display of reviews on RottenTomatoes (which is in two columns nowadays, but used to be either three or four, I forget).

I think it's really the execution here that's problematic. Compare those examples, with say, http://37signals.com/, which has a similar look, but where each piece has been fit together by hand, rather than by an algorithm just stuffing everything where it seems to fit best.

I know that hand-arranging is often not possible, especially with dynamic content, but that's my take on it.