That's pretty pathetic damage.. what am I missing?

Maybe the fact it can be used by a lvl 25?

Most perks increasae damage as you put more points in them, or are affected by your attack skill though..

this one does increase in damage not sure how much though. at 70 my MA with 450 bow skill hits for up to 560 with it. it could be based of bow spc attk though not sure.

Ohhh, it's one of those perks with different "templates". Search for "clearshot" and you'll see the last one is:
On Use Target Hit Health Chemical -1866 .. -2032

If it goes up with skill, instead of with perks, than metas arent' screwd (they/we can only perk lvl 6)

The damage of this perk goes up with bow skill, however its only useful for PVM and even then, a lot of mobs will evade it (aliens of various types and some mobs in Inferno missions). On my 220 MP it does about 1300 damage usually. One perk in this line isn't bad for the DD perk, but spend the rest of your ai perks somewhere else...