Ah, weird you'd find Crafting lacklusting in DOS. If anything, it's actually very handy and the only way to get the most powerful items available. Either by crafting them yourself, or, as pointed out by Sotanaht, improving found items.
Not to forget crafting is also about "everyday needs" like arrows or the incredibly useful snow boots. Or potions. Or, now, grenades.
I'd say there are all the reasons in the world to bother with crafting, really. And to be honest, I think they did a nice job in Classic DOS balancing out crafted and looted items. The issue was that loot quality was all over the place, which is something supposed to have been fixed in EE ( I think )
