'I had always wanted you to admire my fasting,' says the Hunger Artist. 'We do admire it,' says the impressario who employs him. 'But you shouldn't admire it' - 'Well then we don't admire it,' says the impressario, 'but why shouldn't we admire it?' - 'Because I have to fast, I can't help it.' - 'What a fellow you are,' says the other, 'and why can't you help it?' - 'Because I couldn't find the food I liked. If I had found it, believe me, I should have made no fuss and stuffed myself like you or anyone else.
Kafka, The Hunger Artist

The utopianist rejects the actual world and searches for a better one in part because he just can't enjoy this one. He focuses on long term thinking, on the too far future, because he can't enjoy the here and now. But it doesn't make his endeavors necessarily a waste of time. It doesn't make his product necessarily invalid.