People do still use hand mixers, including the electric hand mixers and even the old style hand crank hand mixers.
Although the old hand crank style hand mixers are no used as much now as the electric hand mixers but even the old style hand crank hand mixers are used by some people.
I even use my grandmas old hand crank style hand mixer once in awhile, but most often I use my electric hand mixer.
Electric hand mixers are still highly popular as they are quick and easy to click, are compact for storage and are convenient and lighter baking tasks.
Electric hand mixers still remain a go to choice of mixer for whipping cream, mashing potatoes, mixing standard cake batters and brownie batters without having to haul out or use a heavy stand mixer.
The small electric hand mixers unlike the stand mixers, take up a fraction of the counter or cabinet space of a stand mixer and often cost less.
With the small electric hand mixers they also only have a pair of beaters to wash, as opposed to the heavy stainless steel bowls and large specialty attachments that the stand mixers have to clean.
The hand mixers also allow you to manually guide the beaters of the mixers into the exact corners of whatever bowl or pot you're using to mix the ingredients.
Although in some cases you may still need to use a stand mixer as while modern hand mixers can reach up to and 350+ watts, the hand mixers still are not substitutes for heavy duty stand mixers.
The hand mixers can struggle or even burn out their motors if you happen to force the hand mixers to cream cold, stiff butter or knead heavy bread dough's for extended periods.
And for stiff, high volume baking, a stand mixer is required in those cases.
If you do light baking and not high volume baking, hand mixers are usually enough, but if you do a lot of baking and high volume baking you should use a stand mixer.