I can't remember the last time I bought a
Daedalus.I've played all the common carriers,
Drow Ranger, 
Medusa, Troll, a few others--but I never feel that I want to invest in the item. But why?Well, The famous crit stick offers one thing: An attack damage increase through base attack damage and critical hits. It does this really well and you can melt people with it, but what if.
what if the enemy core suddenly grabs evasion and I need MKB, what if the enemy gets a few damage items and I suddenly need to be tankier or get evasion, what if the enemy gets BKBs and I need an Abyssal or Skadi to keep them off of me?
I end up never getting a
Daedalus because it only gives me one dimension of usefulness. 
Eye of Skadi gives me stats, damage, and a slow--
Skull Basher gives me damage and a disable--MKB gives me true strike--
Butterfly gives me damage, attack speed, and evasion. It's not that I'm against being a glass cannon(well, maybe a little), I just want to be the most effective glass cannon I can be, and crits often don't seem to be the way to do it.The only other big item that IMO comes a little close to on-dimensional is a Heart, so many times a Skadi seems to be better. But even with heart, raw HP is much more reliable than raw damage, the enemy can't just suddenly pick up Max-HP-percentage-based lifesteal.
So maybe its just me, or maybe
Daedalus(and maybe Heart) needs a buff. But until they do, I'd think a bit before getting a crit-stick over a potentially more useful item like MKB.#truestrikeforthewin
that being said, it isn't the best item to get at ~40 minutes because the enemy might get a butterfly.
it is though, an amazing item if you are rushing it (like you would on a troll, or a drow ranger).
However, I think you give the old crit stick a bit of a hard time. It has two primary advantages over the other items you mention:
1) On paper, it's usually the item that increases your average damage by the most. (ok it's not that reliable without attack speed).
2) Hitting for big, unexpected damage can be better than hitting regular amounts. Why? It makes it harder to play against - it's harder to judge fights for the opposition when they seem to be winning and them BOOM dead. It can also give opponents almost no chance to respond if you get a little lucky - say an instant crit on a support.
As you say though, you need to consider all the potential items you might need in any given situation.