The magic in Skyrim wasn't bad... But it was worse than the other two trees, combat and thieving. A fireball throwing destruction mage will simply never do as much damage as a warrior, Archer, or assassin. He had to make up for the weakness of destruction spells with other spell trees.
Morrowind? Oh man. Well, mages started off worse as their magic didn't regenerate except when sleeping. But a high level mage could fly, teleport, unlock doors, summon stuff, drop bombs, even rocket ship way up in the atmosphere. Whatever you want...
