Is Ben useless or he alright?

I feel that he doesn't rly do stuff like fight off walkers or get supplies etc, so he isn't rly useful in that sense, but if you think about it he sort of is. If ben never told the group about people turning no matter how they die, clem, Lee, Kenny etc would've probably died in that meat locker when Larry had a heart attack because kenny n Lee wouldn't have known abt him coming vack and he would've turned. (This isn't written well but it's what I think) also if you decide to bring Ben with you when you go to find clem in ep5 ben can save you if you fall at the bell tower thing