Shalom, Bob. Interesting musings, here. It's always rather illuminating to learn about other people's motivations for setting proverbial pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as the case may be) and yours are no exception.
In my case, I also have no pretensions of being a world-class writer of note, since the world is absolutely chock-a-block with far more talented and insightful individuals than I, but for me writing is and has always served several important purposes. First, I suppose, is that setting my thoughts down is a form of self-therapy in what I consider to be a mad ,uncertain and always unpredictable world. Second, it serves as an affirmation of my deep interest in the human condition as well as an insatiable curiosity about my fallow humming beans (sic, sic, sic). Third, writing serves as a record of my personal sojourn through life, a sort of 'shared diary' if you will, and I have kept copies of nearly every single bit of writing I've ever produced, starting at the tender age of 7!
My writing began with a deep and long abiding interest in all things aviation and space related (as a post-war child), inspired and furthered when I won a prize from the US Air Force in 1953 for my childish essay on the 50th Anniversary of Powered Flight (1903). I was also a life-long SciFi fan (long before STAR TREK and STAR WARS existed...back when Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke and Marion Zimmer Bradley were among the standard fare of 1950s readers...and in fact long before JRR Tolkien was 'rediscovered' by so many modern fans). Yes, I owe a lot to SciFi 'fandom'.
As I grew older, I became a ferocious correspondent in my worldly travels, often filling up 9 or so pages in letters to friends with single-spaced commentary on what I had seen and/or participated in (this was in the age of typewriters and carbon copies, LoL).
Since wifie and I have no children, it somewhat pains me that that entire library full of my outpourings shall most likely end up in a Dempsey Dumpster somewhere, rather than in the archives of a respected University collection...but, as the Arabs put it: "Ma zilt 'aeish!" ("I still LIVE!", ما زلت أعيش!)
Writing is also a form of peer communication, since I have so few close friends or personal acquaintances with whom I can exchange opinions and takes on life. I therefore consider it (my soliloquy) half of a full and meaningful colloquy, lacking a real, human proxy complement.
Life, it seems, is absolutely full (predominantly) of rather dulled-down, unreflective individuals, who have been programmed either through unconscious socialisation by powerfully influential institutions (or simply by virtue of an inherently low intellect), to live a knee-jerk reactive life, day to day. The famed German theologian Erich Bonhoffer even had a hypothesis about this and didn't hesitate to level the accusation of 'stupidity' at the vast masses, with neither reticence nor apology. Gustav LeBon, back in the very late 1800s also addressed this sad fact of the herd-like stupidity of the masses in his masterful book, 'The Crowd'. After all, wasn't it supposedly Socrates himself (one of those icons of 'Evil White Culture') who observed, "The unexamined life is not worth living."
Well, I've continued my examining (and still do) throughout my life, not that it matters one iota to anyone else. At least, should anyone suddenly take an interest in any of my own musing, it's all there (all you have to do is 'Dumpster dive' to find the archives, when I finally kick the bouquet...).
In summary, Bob, there's no such thing as 'worthless writing. ' Keep the torch aflame' and as GALAXY QUEST hero Tim Allen so memorably put it: "NEVER GIVE UP!"
