There is no reason to NOT use something just because "it can be misused". You could as well say "unlink is evil, you can delete files with it so don't ever use unlink".
It's a valid point that the @ operator hides all errors - so my rule of thumb is: use it only if you're aware of all possible errors your expression can throw AND you consider all of them irrelevant.
A simple example is
<?php
$x = @$a["name"];
?>
There are only 2 possible problems here: a missing variable or a missing index. If you're sure you're fine with both cases, you're good to go. And again: suppressing errors is not a crime. Not knowing when it's safe to suppress them is definitely worse.
