Could a similar statement not be made for all the enabling technologies? If all the materials scientists, nanotechnologists, and biotechnologists went fishing as well I suspect the future would look a lot like the present.
Also, my vacuuming robot is pretty good, I haven't had to manually vacuum in several month and there is virtually no dust. I'd rather have that now than wait for robot researchers to get bored fishing and build something incredibly better.
Exactly what sort of robotics are you railing against? It seems to me that your arguments are essentially the old joke "We're wasting 50% of our money here; if only we knew which 50%". Or, "Things aren't useful, until they are".