What are you looking to make?
The pentool itself has very little ability as a tool. It's what you use it for that matters.
In other words, the pentool is only good for making fine lines and creating paths.
At that point, it's your choice to fill in shape, make a line, create an outline, etc.
Also, what you choose to be the settings of a stroke path can be pretty defining in terms of whatever you're doing.
So ya, the pentool is pretty useless by itself. The crazy things you see on the internet that are made with the pentool are seen by a lot of people, but very few of them consider the person using the tool.
That's why they get so frustrated when they use it and can't do amazing things with it.