Yes it was horrible in Wow but in FFXI it was amazing
You could catch very rare fish
You could improve your fishing rod
You could catch treasure
You could catch bottles with quests in them
You could be arrested for fishing with out a license
You could catch potions
You can do all of that in wow except be arrested. I mainly used fishing in wow to make gold. Just look at what fish is in demand on the AH fish for it, cook it, and sell it for a massive profit. So it kinda had a purpouse.
OT: I assume that Skyrim doesn't have fishing for the same reasons it doesn't have alot of features, such as spears, crossbows, throwing weapons, the armor system from morrowind, horse combat, good horses, good werewolves, and indepth marrige and friendship system, an economy, children of different races, spell making, the spells from the other TES games, weresharks, ect. Bethesda doesn't put in everything we want. Just about 3/4 of what we want. I'll just keep grabbing them outta the water. :shrug: