Not completely futile. Though Hurin did give away the general location of Gondolin that information would have done Morgoth little good save for the treachery of Maeglin.
Looking at it another way we might say that Hurin's long defiance bought Gondorlin thirty more years of existence, allowing his nephew Tuor to meet Turgon's daughter Idril and beget Earendil - without whom there would have been no host out of Valinor and no War of Wrath....funny how things hang together in Middle Earth isn't it?
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