from my experience gliding is everything but a waste of time. I used to fly gliders when I was in France and I can tell you that half the members of my club where airline pilots seeking for some "fun" in comparison with their relatively boring day to day task of "pressing buttons" ....
Gliding brought me a great skills with "moving the stick properly" >> keep this ball/string in the center !!!!!!
I found out that learning how to fly rather complex machines such as constant speed prop - multi engine aircrafts was not that difficult as I had already natural reflexes/habits (basic handling) with flying an aircraft.