I think semantic web could benefit from not using a blanket definition. it could be driven down further, like semi-structured query language, or aggregated data collection etc.
Is the World Wide Web useless? If the answer to that question is "No" then its contradictory (albeit inadvertent) to presume a Semantic World Wide Web is useless.
Granted, the messaging behind the Semantic Web meme is simply as bad as it gets, especially for something so important.
The World Wide Web was a Semantic Web from inception. The Semantic Web meme should really have been presented as a new formalized insight into what already existed, since Web inception.
I could not disagree more. SW is great for several stuff. For example business logic, API creation and consumption and stuff like that. SEO is only a minor benefit from switching to that technology. I would totally recommend to follow the work on json-ld and schema.org and you will see that it is not what you have heard.
I would only agree that SW is still a difficult concept to understand and start using for any developer and needs more effort on that direction.
It baffles me how much of a pain we put on ourself to maximize our SEO efforts, but in contrast how lazy we are when it comes to putting structured data out there.