I feel like everyone who treats AGI as "the goal" is wasting energy that could be applied towards real problems right now. AI in general has given humans great

I feel like everyone who treats AGI as "the goal" is wasting energy that could be applied towards real problems right now. AI in general has given humans great leverage in processing information, more than we have ever had before. Do we need AGI to start applying this wonderful leverage toward our problems as a species?