I never said they are. It was more of a clarification that voting isn't always a tool, but usually.

As for specific candidates - highly depends on the country. There's countries like USA, North Korea or Eritrea, where there isn't a single non-sociopathic soul in politics, effectively making elections pointless.

And there's other countries, where most candidates are horrible, but a handful of somewhat decent ones also exist, so at the very least there are options. We can argue about their viability, but them existing is in itself a step up.