I enjoy playing archers because it's a fun class and it's the only class that has attracted me. I've tried to level all my alts to 20 but ended up only using them for produc skills LOL.
Archers are nice pullers/scouts, which is one of the things I enjoy doing. If you're going to compare mages and archers in terms of pulling, archers > mages any day. Mages have either 1) long AoE cast times or 2) short range. Archers have short cast times and they have pretty long range even for their AoE skills.
Also, archers can solo a LOT of mobs by poisoning and running. If you try that with a mage ... good luck.
I wouldn't exactly argue that archers are hard to play or are DPS machines though ... .___. Mages seem to have better damage overal and are harder to manage in my opinion.