Useless? I don't think so.

There's nothing this ragtag horde of competing special interests (humanity) needs more than the uniting force of "we received signals from other civilizations". To unite us and to usher in a new era of a redefined in-group ("us") versus the new out-group ("them" - the aliens).

As the old adage goes, me against my brother, my brother and I against our cousins, my cousins and I against strangers.

What we need is a "all of humanity versus some unspecified aliens" to save us. Even if we have to make them up ourselves; there should be an astrophysicists' conspiracy to fake such signals. I imagine something like "Ok Earth-guys, whoever gets to Epsilon Eridani first owns it! Also, we demand a new season of Firefly." (This would be troublesome, because it would mean they are very close already.)