Yes, Telnet is VERY bad, ssh should be used instead when possible. I have done as you have in disabling ftp, as it is just as bad as telnet. I have people either use scp or sftp.
Absolutely! ftp sucks as bad as telnet for security. It can be useful as an anonymous fileserver (in that it is a more efficient protocol for serving files than http), but beyond that, it shouldn't be used unless there is no other option.
Besides scp is so much more flexible! Want to move a file from A, to B, while you are logged into C...
scp a:file.txt b:.
scp rocks lots more than ftp :-)