Bows were good in both BG1 and 2, but only if you had the gear/skills to use them properly. With 5/5 in Longbows and a Composite Longbow +1 in BG1 (buy it in Beregost if I recall correctly), you'll tear through almost anything before it can get close. They're also extremely good at taking out mages - it's like hitting them with a machine gun, leading to very few spells being cast (always gets interrupted).

Generally, I only use bows where needed though, as a character with maxed out bows will burn through a whole inventory of arrows in no time. In BG2 there are several bows that require no ammunition, in addition to various items that give infinite arrows, so it's not as bad there.

They'll take out anything that isnt immune to normal weapons in no time. The crossbow of speed is also very useful. The only problem from a usability point of view is that you burn through your ammo too quickly without stacking mods. Coran is a superb ranged character, but even Montaron will outkill your melee characters if you equip him with a crossbow of speed. Multiclass characters dont suffer much in terms of THAC0 at the low BG levels:)

BG2 is different as you need magical ammo to hurt most enemies (any weapon with less than +3 enchantment bonus will be obsolete for much of the game), and that gets expensive (the bows that dont require ammo are mid-late game equipment, and the bottomless quivers from Watchers Keep can only be upgraded to magic status in ToB.