When using a block cipher function solely for encryption, it is difficult to exploit a small block size.
On the other hand, a short block size complicates a lot the use of a block cipher function in other useful algorithms, e.g. key derivation algorithms, RNG algorithms, MAC algorithms etc.
The necessity of using a block cipher function also for such purposes has become very obvious almost immediately after the standardization of DES, but then it was too late.
Such applications have been seriously hindered for a couple of decades, until the mid nineties, by the lack of any other publicly known strong block cipher functions. Many workarounds have been published with the purpose of using DES even where its short block length was unacceptable, but all such workarounds were more inefficient than using a block cipher with a greater block size. They were designed only because it was expected that using the already existing hardware integrated circuits that computed DES would be more efficient than implementing a block cipher function in software, on the slower computers of that time.
On the other hand, a short block size complicates a lot the use of a block cipher function in other useful algorithms, e.g. key derivation algorithms, RNG algorithms, MAC algorithms etc.
The necessity of using a block cipher function also for such purposes has become very obvious almost immediately after the standardization of DES, but then it was too late.
Such applications have been seriously hindered for a couple of decades, until the mid nineties, by the lack of any other publicly known strong block cipher functions. Many workarounds have been published with the purpose of using DES even where its short block length was unacceptable, but all such workarounds were more inefficient than using a block cipher with a greater block size. They were designed only because it was expected that using the already existing hardware integrated circuits that computed DES would be more efficient than implementing a block cipher function in software, on the slower computers of that time.