I need opinions, please!

I have been designing a few sites, mostly for friends, but there are some that will be used comercially.

When reviewing colors, I still trot out the '216 colors' is best and try and make people chose from these. However, an increasing number of people want more choice. Every article I've read seems to be 5 years or more old, so am I right still insisting on 216 colors or do I need to modernise my thinking?.....

FEW users are running 256 color displays....check your web stats to get numbers for the site. It will break down all the stats you will need. It might depend on the site and the target user group. But I would still guess it to be <1%.

I dropped it a long time ago. IMO, anyone still running only 256 colors is not the kind of person I am catering a site toward.

256 color palletes are long gone just like the days of 640 displays.