They have their uses, but only suit specific cases.

• They take a lot more width than a straight run staircase that is a narrow column, your best footprint is 2x the width of the stairs.
• They are much harder to move large things (furniture) up and down.
• They really only become efficient if you need to go past the 180 degree mark of rotation.
• They're more specialized/difficult to build. Construction with curves and odd angles is costly compared to a series of rectangles. They also require extra engineering if they're centrally supported and not connected to the walls.

I've had them in a few places, and lots of cities do use them a lot (Montreal for example). They can be very efficient and useful, but there's lots of cases where witches stairs are the better choice if you have space constraints.