That's my whole point, if you are not in thick fog they provide absolutely no value.
I have had the same experience in really thick fog on several occassions. You are in a line of cars creeping through the mountains. It's dark and so foggy that you can't see the road in front of your front bumper. So you are just trying to keep the distance between the car in front of you constant. What happens is that your tach and speedo are telling you that you are moving, albeit slowly, but you can't see the road and the car in front of you is staying the same distance away. It starts to seem almost like you are not moving at all. It is a scary situation and the reason cars have fog lights. Fog lights are designed to illuminate the road directly in front of your bumper when you otherwise can't see it.
Consider yourself lucky if you have never been in this situation and trust me that in these cases fog lights most certainly serve their intended purpose. Changing them for show and, in doing so, making them less effective at doing what they are designed to do, strikes me as pretty dumb. But it sounds like a lot of people would rather call attention to themselves and look "cool" than have a safety feature when they really need it.
To each his own, I guess.
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/fog_lamps/fog_lamps.html
