I buy them to show support and appreciation to developers who are not crazy greedy. Like when I was still playing Guild Wars 2, I know that hosting servers and maintaining a living story cost money so I will just buy a little something every month; cosmetic things.
Now design games with customers being cows in mind.... no. 
If they released a content dlc that contained a creation kit interface, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Otherwise, I'll keep my money till something more substantial than a few armours and a mount recolour. I do agree that it's bad practice for Bioware to sell seperate armour and schematic packs for items that are contained in models in a DLC. This is something that's happened recently and I hope that EA and Bioware get more backlash than the profit is worth.
I bought all the DLC armor/weapons for Mass Effect. But not so much for da:i or da2. Mostly because there's other armor in the game that I prefer, and while I like decorating Skyhold. I get the correct motif going, and I can make that with the selection that was in the vanilla game 
It's all an appearance thing.
Like in me2. I don't like Garrus running around in armor with a giant hole in the neck. So I bought the appearance pack so he'd at least have armor that functioned correctly. It's not like he needed another hole in the face.
The pool I buy games from and enjoy playing is rather small. So I (re)play those games for many hours and like alternate appearances those dlc's provides.
I don't really care for the decor or mounts, I like what I have in the vanilla game. The DLC armor looks alright, but the stats are lacking and I couldn't see paying five dollars just for them. Also no new weapons, that's probably the biggest sticking point. The DA2 item packs had tons of armor (high and low level) and weapons (almost all of which would level with the player, making them useful for the duration of a playthrough) for every class, all for the same price as the new DLC they're selling.
The bonuses were the same as those of the base/alt outfits.The Mass Effect 3 Item Packs also gave incredible weapons that I glad I own. Those Alternate Appearance packs at least gave squadmates a different buff when used.
I only buy item packs for games I really enjoy.
If it looks good and the price is reasonable...
I dont care about stats all that much, in fact buying OP weapon would feel paying for cheat.
The bonuses were the same as those of the base/alt outfits.
Those things were purely cosmetic (IMO, best EDI and Liara armours in the game, Garrus From Ashes armour was better, though).
After looking it up, I'm afraid you're correct about the Alternate Appearance pack armors not giving unique bonuses.
The item packs are overpriced in general, so the only reason i buy one is either:
- To show support for the game, because if i really liked it, i want to make sure to contribute to more content or future releases. In this case my opinion of DAI is mixed so i would not go and throw more money to bioware unless they show improvements (ex. DA2 legacy/assasin dlc improved over the base game combat and setting). And no the Avvar dlc was not what i would call and improvement, it had the same faults as the main game.
- Because the items included inside are just what i want - so i love them so much i need them, even if know it should be cheaper. One scenario could be me having my canon DAI playthrough as a qunari warrior, but no armor looks good on him. After seeing the arishok armor i decide that is just the look i wanted for my inquisitor, so naturally i would spend some money to get it - makes my game more enjoyable. However, if i never run a qunari character nor do i care much about iron bull (not romancing, etc.) then there is very little reason for me to buy some qunari armor.
For the record, i bought most of the ME2 item pack dlcs because i liked some of the armor/weapons included, and mainly because i had bioware points leftover. Once the bioware points were gone, i have been much more careful buying these kind of dlcs. I didn´t get a single one for DAO/DA2 if i remember correctly, just the promotional items - this was because in DA2 companions could not equip armours so many items were wasted, and there was no item that really made me feel like buying - i ended up using a modded armour that looked great for my warrior hawke.
I normally don't buy item packs, but for Dragon Age games it's a lot easier to make allowance for it given how much I play this game. It's almost shameful I only paid 70 bucks for it.
When I finally have a game like DA:O, I play it for the first time without any mods and wouldn't use, respectively buy item packs.
Perhaps I play it a second time with a completely different class, again without mods or purchased items.
For the next playthroughs I check the available mods, use mostly those for cosmetic matters. If item-DLCs are available, I buy them for a quicker
start, because - as we all know - some early chapters are a bit tedious at times. With a DLC-weapon / armour things are speeded up a bit.
But then, like in DA II, it spoils the fun. The DLC-weapons / armours are remarkably stronger than those which are available in the early chapters of the
vanilla version. Thus, the delight of finding better stuff respectively the feeling of having achieved something won't appear for a long time.
In ME they made a better job, IMO. The weapons from the DLC didn't feel overpowered, they were just different.
Summarized, most item-DLCs which contain equipment cut both ways:
Easing early (boring, tedious) routines on the one hand - spoiling the fun on the other.
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