References are going the way of the dodo bird, anyway. In my circles, job seekers don't bother offering them and employers are ending the practice of asking for them. (411: I'm in the LAX market & a best friend is an HR executive.)
Yeah. They're probably still sort of a pro-forma sort of thing in many cases but I'd be surprised if people still checked them for professional jobs in a systematic way.
Of course, doesn't mean you don't check in with folks you know who have worked with the person at your company and elsewhere.
Your circle is not representative of the job market.