Speaking from experience... it's hard to tell. Yes, but also: no. I know 'useful' is employable.

I have been more easily valued for my 'use' by being easier to manipulate. Or, sorry, felt more open/safe. Money spends the same.

Layoffs? To quote Janet Jackson: 'what have you done for me lately?'

Depends on whether you want a say in the direction of the trench you are digging, or just want to dig from here until quitting time.

It should be, but the cold, hard meritocracy just doesn't exist, so you need to combine your useful work with soft skills to have your work valued

It would be nice if that were true, but there isn't as much correlation between those two as one would wish.

People can get used to a certain level of usefulness from a person, and start to take it for granted. The first time you swoop in and do something in an hour that had been holding others up for weeks, they're astounded by your usefulness. The tenth time, it's just what you do, so it's expected.

And yes, that does seem to happen more if you're wearing work boots, probably because people who never wear work boots assume that, if it can be done in work boots, it can't be as astounding and valuable as it appeared at first, or you would have moved beyond work boots by now.

Usefulness may hold its value in the trenches, but the people ultimately deciding everyone's salary generally aren't in the trenches.