I think there’s a very big distinction between the usefulness of English for travel vs living in a country. Sure, English is a great for tourism, but outside of that I would not say it’s as useful as a lot of English speakers like to say. As someone who moved to Spain, I would say it’s pretty much impossible to get by (living) here with only English.
I've managed to travel to 30+ countries and never felt out of place because most places will somehow accommodate English speakers.
The only place I felt a little bit of language hostility was in Russia. Moscow was probably the least English-friendly major city I've ever been to - but that makes sense from a historical perspective.