Yes they are helpful. Maybe not much as battle-commands, but I find them useful in DoH for example. Not to mention as chat commands. If you find yourself typing the same things often in chat macros are great.

Using battle-actions with macros isn't optimal 'cause you can't queue your skills and abilities with macros. Also if you experience lag, they may not even trigger. The only way to make sure how you feel about them is to actually try though. Make some simple macros and see if your battles flow better. Or feels less chaotic, etc.

I use some macros simply because I feel my hotbars gets too populated otherwise.