You're not bad at using enchantments—the tree genuinely feels weak until you hit specific perks, and honestly a lot of players skip it early. The damage scaling is trash compared to just smithing a better base weapon, you're right about that.
But here's the thing: Enchanting gets way more useful once you're slapping multiple enchantments on gear and stacking effects. Like, a sword with Chaos Damage plus a ring with Fortify One-Handed plus a piece of armor with Fortify Archery all add up in ways that pure smithing can't touch. The real payoff comes from stuff like the perk that lets you add a second enchantment to items—suddenly you're doing way more than just a marginal boost.
Also, if you're running Alchemy + Enchanting together, you can abuse the loop where you craft potions that boost Enchanting, then use those to make better enchantments, then use those to make better Alchemy gear. Gets ridiculous fast. But that's more of an endgame min-max thing.
For your current build though? Honestly, I'd throw a few perks in to unlock the multi-enchantment perk and call it a day. Smithing and One-Handed are going to give you way more noticeable returns right now. Enchanting pays off more if you're doing a magic-heavy build or if you're planning to go deep into crafting loops later.
