My first cropped hoodie came from a supermarket clothing rail, bought in a hurry for a weekend away, and it taught me that cropped doesn't just mean shorter, it means the whole proportion of the thing changes, sleeves, hood, pocket and all. I wore it with the jeans I always wore and spent the whole weekend tugging it down, convinced it had shrunk, when really I'd just bought the wrong shape for what I had on underneath.
Getting the fit right is less about your size on the label and more about where it actually stops on you. Try it with high waisted jeans or leggings, the kind that sit at or above your natural waist, and look at it from the side, not just the front, because a lot of cropped hoodies look fine straight on and then ride up at the back the second you sit down or reach for something off a shelf. Watch the sleeves too. Brands crop the body and then forget to shorten the arms, so you end up with something that looks cut off at the waist but still has sleeves down to your knuckles, which is its own strange look. If the hem sits right at your belly button, that's usually the safest length, high enough to pair with higher rises, low enough that it doesn't flash a strip of stomach every time you lift your arms.
Where it stops being useful is anywhere you need actual warmth or coverage. A cropped hoodie over a low rise anything is a cold stomach waiting to happen, and it's a poor choice for layering under a coat, because the extra length of a normal hoodie is often what's keeping your lower back warm in the first place. I've learned to keep mine for indoor days, a jumper over leggings for the school run, a top over cycling shorts in summer, that sort of thing, rather than anything that involves standing around outside for long.
As for ageing, the cotton ones soften fast and the hem can start to curl after a few washes if you tumble dry it, so I turn mine inside out and let it dry flat when I can be bothered, which is maybe sixty percent of the time. The drawstrings fray first, always, long before the fabric itself gives up, so if yours has them, they're the bit to keep an eye on.
Would I actually tuck something under this and be happy with what's on show when I bend over to pick something up off the floor?