Playing devil's advocate, but this still prevents lots of web-based attacks. Provided you store the encryption key on the filesystem, or in memory and the encrypted passwords in the database usually you'll get access to only one part.
But it gets better! If you have access to the encrypted passwords, but not the key, then they're safer than hashes, since the attacker cannot try to bruteforce them (he could try bruteforcing a very very long encryption key of course...)
But it gets better! If you have access to the encrypted passwords, but not the key, then they're safer than hashes, since the attacker cannot try to bruteforce them (he could try bruteforcing a very very long encryption key of course...)