I used my bow twice tonight and got a skill up
. It is a cheap bow I made myself (on another character) Carved Elm I think. Since I spend most of my time in dungeons range is not an issue. Also I have much better things to put in my range slot than bows. Really if I was going to spend money on a bow I would be looking at the stats first and bow attributes second.
Also remember that range is the range of the arrow plus the bow. So making a longer range arrow could compensate for a shorter range bow.
Bear in mind that rogues are severely limited on archery skill but have a throwing skill and can actually crit on throws - FWIW. Of course range on throwing is a bit of a joke.
Finally the word is ROGUE.