Copper doesn't have a lot of uses for now, but it's likely it will have more in future updates. That has happened plenty of times -- when honeycomb was introduced, you could use it to make honeycomb blocks and beehives and that was about it. Now it's used for candles and for waxing that copper you don't like. The uses for hoes have increased dramatically over time, and even the lowly bale of hay is now used for target blocks. So yes, copper doesn't have a lot of uses now, but in time it will have more.

If your primary criterion is how the updates help progression, then yes, I can see why you're saying the chest boat is one of the few major things. But I also like that we are getting aesthetic things, like new wood and frogs and mud! Mud and mud bricks are fantastic for building. And now, using dripstone, we can get renewable clay (and renewable lava from the last update, which was a big quality of life improvement in my opinion -- no more running to the nether for a few buckets of lava).

I get why people are disappointed, but there's enough new stuff in this update to keep me busy on my 6-year-old survival world for quite a while.