Protesting is about bring awareness and education to the public over topics the media was not airing. For example, the media was not talking about income inequality before OWS protest started happening. OWS shifted national discourse for a lot of people. That means it was a very successful protest.

So yes, real change has to happen somewhere else. Newly educated people could drive that change, new alliances could be formed, or next steps like boycotts could be organized. Those things could have started at a protest, which is another reason why protesting is valuable.