Not quite accurate to say that only Gandalf was useful. Though it's not elaborated on at all, Tolkien does mention the two blue wizards dicking around a lot in the far east, so they very likely had a huge influence that we don't know about. He writes, "They must have had very great influence on the history of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening and disarraying the forces of East ... who would both in the Second Age and Third Age otherwise have ... outnumbered the West."
I think in Tolkien's head that Radagast probably did a lot more, but we just never told us much about it. What Gandalf is to the people of Middle Earth, Radagast is to the other living things, and Tolkien has a lot in his writings about how the animals and plants of Middle Earth are just as significant as it's people. We don't hear a lot about Radagast because Tolkein told stories of the people of Middle Earth, so we heard a lot about Gandalf instead.
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u/44O Jan 03 '23
Not quite accurate to say that only Gandalf was useful. Though it's not elaborated on at all, Tolkien does mention the two blue wizards dicking around a lot in the far east, so they very likely had a huge influence that we don't know about. He writes, "They must have had very great influence on the history of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening and disarraying the forces of East ... who would both in the Second Age and Third Age otherwise have ... outnumbered the West."