[Shodo]

As far as upgrades go, look to buying/farming drops. While some race/class combos get awesome cultural armor stat-wise, most of it ends up being just for looks. Definitely not something to re-roll over though, especially considering the thousands of plat you have to invest just to be able to make it (and the thousands more spent crafting it).

If you still want smithing to be important/useful for RP or other reasons, you have a few options.
You can use it for some Velious quests like the coldain prayer shawl & ring quests.
You can craft banded & fine steel plate, sell them to players, and use the profits to purchase gear upgrades.
You can pretend to be a vendor/quest NPC and craft banded mail & forged weapons for newbies in exchange for things like LQ pelts & spiderling silk.

Regardless, it would just be for fun. If you're wanting the best gear around, cultural isn't really for you unless you're a dwarf or a half-elf bard.