Am I wasting my life away studying the French?

Studying the French is certainly useful knowledge that can transfer to other openings and positions. I don't think you'll ever encounter a strong player who doesn't possess some knowledge of the French.

It's practically mandatory study, especially since so many other openings involve a fixed e6/d5 center.

But, like you discovered, once you get too deep into specific lines, the knowledge isn't really useful anymore, except in that line. For that reason, I recommend not going too deeply into your line studies. 10 to 15 moves at most.

Spend the rest of your opening study time exploring other lines and/or openings. 

The reason most people play chess is to win. So if you like to win play the French or the German.

What did he "Hurl"

The French is a passive opening and---

...perfectly playable and sound and highly annoying for a lot of white players.

unless you're playing against the Tarrasch

dork

Haven't we already covered this?!

I wish people wouldn't post when stoned.

What an incredible waste of time it was to ask a serious question on this site-for-idiots.  Aside from Inkspirit, no one else seems able even to read here.

good opening for white

French Winawer teaches some valuable lessons about space, pawn mass, knight vs bishop imbalance, bad bishop, weak dark squares and withstanding an attack. If you find it monotonous, find a companion opening where these themes are useful (Nimzo-Indian? Taimanov Sicilian?). Also, find something for the white side where You play for space advantage (and not against it), for bishop pair and for attack, and you will be fine.

If you play the French and you are a very strong player --you can draw against any 1. e4 player.

Thanks Nescitus, great points.  As a matter of fact when I play the Sicilian I do play the Taimanov, so maybe those characteristics have seeped into my subconscious.  I never said I found the French monotonous, just wondering if what you learn is opening-specific or whether it helps general improvement.

(People's opinions as to whether it's a good opening or not are completely irrelevant, anything that got played in the ongoing 2020 candidates' tournament is good enough for the rest of us.)

French defense was played twice in the 2020 candidates torøurnament, both times by Nepomniatchi. His drew one game, and lost the other one.

So you're saying it got played TWICE during this candidates.  Even stronger argument.

..and zero wins for Black.

These days the general wisdom is that you are not supposed to try to win with black. Only if White feels ever so generous

luckily for OP, french has a lot of sidelines with different flavors. It seems Winawer is probably not for you and you desire a more thematic variation.
3.nf6 the classical french is positional orthodoxy and still alive and well, you cant exactly go wrong with it.
3.dxe5 is fine, especially as a draw weapon and if you price stability of structure above all else, its not a bad choice to learn
3.nc6 leads to interesting sidelines with their own unique flavor and slower pace. You may like them.

Right, the fact that Nepo lost to MVL surely means he'd lose to someone of your caliber as well.  The fact that it's played at the very tip-top level is all you need to know, don't worry your little head about super-GM results in one or two games as if it called an entire opening into question.