But how boring would that be for him? What real reason does he have to rampage over the land except the visceral pleasure it gives him?
Visceral pleasure is visceral pleasure. Apparently hard for an evildoer (or a visceral creature) to resist. And I'm not convinced Archy is such an intelligent creature. Visceral sounds more accurate. "Darkspawn Chronicles" gave it "thoughts," but they were in parentheses as if they were just general commands, not worded commentary to its troops. Plus they were fairly vaguely cast out messages to all the minions rather than direct tactical orders sent general-style. No, I don't even consider the DS DLC particularly credible as a source: it's even way more jokey than "Mark of the Assassin" given it's only there to let you kill everyone you spend so many hours getting to know in the real game... which I never found fun as an idea. (I watched a YT vid of someone else doing it.)
This is why I don't consider its motivations based on "how boring" it considers something or having "too much ego not to stay," as was mentioned earlier. If we impart that sort of intelligence to Archy, there's no reason for it not to have pretty much handled everything without even a horde of minions. It could've wiped out Denerim single-handedly before the Wardens even survived Ostagar- could've torched Ostagar for that matter- all done. Or it could've located the wardens at the camp and come itself to torch them then and there without an army or Irving or whoever else to fend off as well. But it could only send a bunch of shrieks? Once? It obviously sensed them. Instead Archy functions more like a wolf pack member, getting confidence with greater pack numbers and the continued successful exploits of the pack itself- and then, when the rest of the pack goes in like pawns, it ultimately just goes in "rampage"-style when it feels ready. Which it did. That is, after all, more like what happened. This doesn't make it any less dangerous, just not an intelligent adversary.
This is also why I agree with the OP's incredulity about its behavior in the end fight. If it can fly, and it's getting near the end of its health... it does have a way out, yes? What does it care if it "looks bad?" Just get out! Any wounded animal would do the same. It doesn't take a genius to not die. There's no honor code among darkspawn. The wardens wouldn't be able to do anything about it other than with archery and spells- and only for so long before it would be out of range. Then it could heal back up and and return as necessary while its minions kept the wardens busy or maybe killed them in the meantime. Why was dying a martyr to its cause more a show of intelligence? It wouldn't do that.
So maybe it can't fly after all and thus Riordan didn't die in vain. This would seem more in keeping with having had the whole Riordan sequence at all. Or was Riordan's effort for nothing other than to locate Achy temporarily to the fort (just long enough for the wardens to arrive)? It can really just heal back up? I never noticed it regenerating- nor any other darkspawn. In that YT video the player had to do the end fight three times because Archy kept dying too quickly to dog bites. If it really were able to fly again, then why bother staying on top of the fort after healing, particularly when wardens were around? Prior to that it was getting "visceral pleasure" torching the city, no? That's exactly what it was doing and exactly what we would legitimately expect it to keep doing. So it remaining on the fort works better only if its wing is injured and it can't fly... Except that it does fly... as we saw... Riordan died for nothing. It would've made more sense if all it could do at that point was sort of jump around from place to place with one wing tucked up- thus stuck on top of the tower- but it actually flew straight up high enough to disappear into the red sky and then came down strong and ready to keep scrapping all over the place- even right in front of ballistas, being the intelligent, tactical leader it is.
I think the devs wanted to make Archy too injured to fly- hence Riordan's death and Archy's spiraling free-fall to Fort Drakon's roof- but they also didn't want a static dragon fight for the end battle, and they didn't have the animation skills yet (or perhaps time) to create a convincingly jumping, injured dragon, so they settled with going anti-static while creating a supposed-to-be-unable-to-fly flying Archy. It's no different than the dissonance created by the protagonist's crew having slews of healing potions while no one else uses them at all- no enemy and not even friendly NPCs. You just sort of roll with it and enjoy the scenery.
Don't get me wrong. I don't fault the devs for how they handled it or balk at them in some asinine diffidence. They did what they felt they could, it seems. Graphics engines were limited back then. They certainly made a cool-looking dragon with great animation regardless. And it was a fun enough fight, particularly with all the random spawnie mobs and having to avoid Archy's unavoidable breath blasts. It's just that technically the fight didn't fit so well the narrative they seemed to be cultivating, so there's a legitimate criticism to be made if you're going to bother making it. Anyway I like DAI's dragon-fights better. 
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