I guess if you don't understand how the job Neelix as a cook is saving the ship energy by not using replicators or how his party's are a form of stress relief that saves holodeck energy, then I can see how one would find him useless. However, Neelix was far from useless. Thanks to Neelix, the ship now has the energy in it's replicators to use for more important things like repairs & building the Delta Flyer. Neelix was also a great sounding board for Janeway, Tuvok & Be'Lanna. They often solved many issues by bouncing ideas off of him because of him being the only one with a unique perspective. Neelix also taught Tuvok to be more less stricked and far more tolerant a person.
Kes had potential but I think her downfall was the fact that coming onboard Voyager, she didn't have any real skills that could make her a real asset. Making her a nurse was a bad choice for character. It limited her.
Neelix also did things like almost destroy Voyager with cheese and get Ensign Hogan killed due to his massive incompetence. Not to mention there was a whole episode where he acted like a jealous psycho. Frankly there were other ways to save energy, like find a way to transfer the Holodeck's power to the other systems of the ship and get rid of this liability. Neelix does something stupid in almost every episode he is in.
Being stupid isn't a crime nor is jealousy and as Brandy said: "Almost, doesn't count."
How many crewmen died under Tuvok's watch as head of security?
Paris in "30 Days" & the Doc in "Flesh & Blood" both "almost" got the entire crew killed.
Janeway "almost" got everyone killed a few times.
The cheese was never a big threat.
Chakotay even said, if they ran out of bio-nural packs they'd just go back to isolinear chips.
Hogan was an Officer, Neelix wasn't.
Hogan had every right to refuse Neelix request.
If Hogan was a good Officer, he would have known this.
Hogan was also Maquis.
He showed he had no skills in wilderness survival.
So as Obi-Wan said: "Who's the more foolish? the fool or the fool that follows?"
You're calling Neelix a fool but Hogan still followed behind what he told him without question, even after Neelix told him the bones could mark a warning. So it wasn't like Hogan wasn't unaware he should be alert.
It was Hogan who was a bad Officer and had poor survival skills as a Maquis.
