Real neck anatomy is a little more complicated than people are thinking.

The greatest range of motion of the neck is due to the C1 and C2 vertebrae (the atlas and the axis), which are significantly different from other vertebrae. The Atlanto-occipital joint--where the spine meets the skull--is actually the place responsible for the nodding motion of the head, and some side-to-side. The joint between the atlas and axis (C1 and C2) is responsible for most of the twisting motion of the head (thus the reason the C2 is named "axis"). Because the atlas and axis are so small, in a 3D model you can consider them a single joint for the purposes of movement.

The rest of the cervical vertebrae (the neck, in other words) has a much more limited range of motion. If you somehow froze the C1 and C2 in position and just moved the head and neck through the range of motion possible allowed by the other bones, you'd see that the neck without those two specialized joints at the top isn't that flexible. In other words, it would look a lot more like the "before" model in the above images than in the one with the two added bones.

The result of this is that the rigging currently present in most figures, like the V4 shown above, is anatomically correct. The neck moves stiffly as a unit, and most of the head movement is at the joint between head and neck. Adding (rigging) bones to the neck makes it less natural, not more, unless you severely restrict their range of motion to only a few degrees.