It has its fans.  I'm one of them.  I've never gone a bundle on the Smedley offerings - the sea island cotton polo shirts in dark green and navy - have been far more to my liking - but I had an off-white v-neck I wore until it was full of holes, often beneath a G9 or Anti-Freeze on windy days.  Certainly, as Kingstonian says, less annoying than cashmere if anything nasty gets at it.  M&S used to do a fair, inexpensive piece.