Yeah, "useless" in what sense?
I've got an old Yakima Basket Case that I bought 21 years ago and with some cross bar adapters I put it on the factory crossbars. Have used it to haul the spare tire for my trailer (trailer doesn't have the capacity to mount a spare) and also firewood. On my next big 4x4 camping trip it will hold 2 x 3 gallon Rotopax fuel cans.
Here's a picture of us loaded up and heading to Wyoming with the trailer in tow and a spare tire and bundle of firewood on the rack. Worked just fine.
And I have no reason to believe it wouldn't haul my canoe in much the same way that I carried it on my '99 T4R.
I admire the looks of the bigger/beefier racks but I'm not willing to take the hit on mileage and the Yakima does what I need a rack to do. I have a receiver hitch carrier for bicycles and a trailer if I need to haul anything big.