I've been mostly roleplaying my character and have done quite a bit of random jobs and I like all the stuff you can do. However is there any point to the lumber mill stuff besides just doing it for the sake of doing it?

Chop wood and sell it to the operator.
One session of shopping (6 cords @ 5 gold ea) = 30 gold
Basicly outfitted, you can carry enough wood per session (7 cycles) to earn 210.
One day's work is a quick 1,000 gold.
Easy money.

I like it.
Gives my characters a job whilst traveling.

Edited: Chunky fingers this evening.

I knew that much but what about cutting the large trees into halves?

Nada; just roleplaying.
But again, I like it. Everything doesn't have to have a benefit. I appreciate the fact that some things are just 'there and available'.

Pretty sure they ment for them to have some kind of function, but haven't gotten around to implementing it.
Thats the case for a lot of economy stuff, actually. Just listen to some earlier interviews of the Toddler talking about how awesome the new economy system is.

Mods can probably mod it so that it increases the firewood for you to chop, rather than it being infinite as it is now.

I was wondering about that. I noticed a lot of stuff in the interviews isn't actually in the game. I've yet to see a dragon crash into the ground, for example. Not complaining, just saying. Thanks though for the answers.

Oh dragons crash into the ground all the damn time for me, even pushed me off a mountain once.

It must depend on the area you are in then and I just haven't had the pleasure yet. Although I did get eaten today...that was new.

Would be cool if you could create arrows with wood and ingots

You are telling me. I would kill for fletching. In general I love the new crafting aspects but I still wish they were bigger and more in depth.

I wondered what that was, a dragon slammed the ground as I was hiding by a boulder and the whole ground erupted and the soil was totally overturned and there was a huge area he left scarred, but it seems to have knocked the dragon off the cliff,... I had to kill him as he was stuck on the cliff side and his skeleton fell off the mountain, I had to hunt it down for the loot.

Yea, for one, i saw that they could turn the inventory item, but now i can't do anything with it. No idea if this town economy thing is even in.

Looking at inventory items is still in. On consoles, you push in the right thumbstick, don't know about pc.
I did notice that one of the merchants who I usually drain dry from selling them so much stuff went from 750 septims to 2500 once. It was confusing, but good, though I'd hardly call it an amazing economy system.