It may have been academically discredited, but it is still a very useful approximate model when applied to a reasonably large and heterogeneous group of people. In this case, for example, paying the bills trumps interesting work for most people.
Well, it does seem to make a lot of sense but I don't think there is much research to actually support it. I don't remember where I read that now it's not considered very useful (I do remember it was in at least a couple of places), but the wikipedia page lists mentions at least one reference against it (Wahba, A; Bridgewell, L (1976). "Maslow reconsidered: A review of research on the need hierarchy theory"), and not so many references in its favor.
As for what has replaced it, AFAIK it wasn't one "thing" as simple as the hierarchy was, but simply more research about the issue. There is a lot of literature on the subject, and a lot of it by Maslow himself.
