Nothing really new here, I guess. But at least it's better than your last "strategy" articles.
The key to any ranged unit in the game is to get them in large enough numbers to produce a critical mass. This is harder with Chariot Archers than, say, Composite Bowmen, Horse Archers or even Elephant Archers due to the fact that the Chariot Archers do relatively little damage. Also, for a Bronze Age economy, producing masses of CAs tend to cost a whole lot, and they train slower than Composites.
The point you make here, however, may be a bit off. If the CAs are in a position where they can hit and run, they're doing good. If they become trapped somewhere, however, they can easily fall prey to a number of other, slower, units, including Compies, Slingers, or even Improved Bowmen. Maybe even infantry. The Chariot Archers are also among the units that take up most space in the game; this is another reason it is hard to get the above mentioned critical mass.
Against composite bowmen, there is the following relationship:
Compies have 45 h.p.s and do 5 damage per shot.
CAs have 70 h.p.s and do 4 damage per shot.
Compies must shoot 70/5 = 14 shots to kill a CA, or 16 if it has Nobility; even more if it is Egyptian.
CAs must shoot 45/4 = 12 shots to kill a Compie.
This means that if both are in groups of 25 (maximum group size) and all are able to fire, the CAs will be wasting most of their firepower from the start. After a while, the CAs would be victorious in such a scenario, even though the economic damage inflicted upon the CA user will, in fact, be greater than that inflicted upon the Compie user.
In the game, however, such a scenario is rarely the case. The Composite user will quite likely have more Compies than his opponent has CAs. Furthermore, the Compies move "smoother" than the CAs; the CAs tend to move in strange ways, getting easily stuck, etc., due to their size. The Compies don't have such problems. It is also far easier to move Compies in groups than CAs. Unless you have open terrain, CAs will tend to form a line, and get slaughtered by Compies.
The main usefulness of CAs isn't fighting, but, as you said, raiding Villagers.