I have both and I love a beautiful wood stock. There's nothing better looking then a high figured Walnut stock. Most of my hunting rifles are Ruger M77's All Weathers. No matter how careful you are you're going to bang them up. The synthetics are allot more foregiving. I recently got a couple Laminated stocks to put on a couple of my All Weathers. The extra weight should tame the recoil of the bigger calibers on a bench.
I agree guns are a tool but they are also a thing of beauty. For the range I have no problem using a wood stock. For hard use in the field you can't beat a synthetic stock.