That's like asking is bullet chess a waste of time. If you enjoy it then its not waste.
Is CHESS 960 a waste of TIME ?

It depends on what you are here for. If you are here just to push wood, then bullet and Chess960 are fine.
However, if you want to get any better at the game, bullet and Chess960 are a complete utter waste of time. The only reason for Chess960 is so that morons that pump out chess books by the hour and claim they are actually good, like Eric Schiller, can publishing 959 more opening theory books, one for each of the other 959 starting positions in Chess960 aside from the "normal position", which is one of the 960 possbilities, and technically 2 of the 960, as if you simply invert the Queens and Kings (WKd1, WQe1, BKd8, BQe8), you have a normal position, just that 1.e4 e5 2.f4 is the "Queen's Gambit" and 1.d4 d5 2.c4 is the "King's Gambit".

Playing bullets and blitzes once in a while is ok and fun. But to put training on those games is a waste of time.

I once believed that chess would move to a variation like Chess960 as opening preparation turned the game into more of a memory contest than one of skill.
Now I'm not so sure. Computers have sped up that process considerably and people have taken it in stride.
People are so invested in the work they have put in to build their opening repertoires, that it's hard for me to imagine them throwing that over to play 960.
It's like the QWERTY keyboard. People know QWERTY's drawbacks and that there are theoretically better keyboards like the Dvorak, but almost no one cares to switch.

Chess 960 is crap real chess player play for preparation and planning in 960 all that is thrown out the window even though you try to develop you center the other player counter acts it with some odd random move. Of course i suck at it so yea.....
It depends on what you are here for. If you are here just to push wood, then bullet and Chess960 are fine.
However, if you want to get any better at the game, bullet and Chess960 are a complete utter waste of time. The only reason for Chess960 is so that morons that pump out chess books by the hour and claim they are actually good, like Eric Schiller, can publishing 959 more opening theory books, one for each of the other 959 starting positions in Chess960 aside from the "normal position", which is one of the 960 possbilities, and technically 2 of the 960, as if you simply invert the Queens and Kings (WKd1, WQe1, BKd8, BQe8), you have a normal position, just that 1.e4 e5 2.f4 is the "Queen's Gambit" and 1.d4 d5 2.c4 is the "King's Gambit".
Inverting the king and queen leads to a similar, but not identical, position in Chess960. The difference is the castling rule. The white kingside castle takes the king to g2, even though it starts on D1 instead of E1.
The significance of that change is that in order to get the king tucked in close to the corner as is normally the case for the king side castle, you have to move three pieces out of the way instead of two, and you have to cross an extra space, which might be a square in check.
If you go for the easier castling, now on the queen side, you only move two pieces out of the way, but your king is on the C file.
The "mirrored" positions in Chess960 really are different. If you were so foolish as to actually try to memorize openings for 960 positions, you really would have to do 960 different opening positions, because the memorized moves for one position wouldn't work for the mirrored position after castling.
A lot of people think Chess960 should use a simpler castling rule, which is that the king moves two spaces, or only one if it starts on b or g, and trades with the rook. This variation is sometimes called Chess480 because in that case, each position has a "twin" that is a mirror, and the same opening moves, mirrored of course, would work on both positions.
I once believed that chess would move to a variation like Chess960 as opening preparation turned the game into more of a memory contest than one of skill.
Now I'm not so sure. Computers have sped up that process considerably and people have taken it in stride.
People are so invested in the work they have put in to build their opening repertoires, that it's hard for me to imagine them throwing that over to play 960.
It's like the QWERTY keyboard. People know QWERTY's drawbacks and that there are theoretically better keyboards like the Dvorak, but almost no one cares to switch.
I want to play more Chess960, and it is because I have no interest in memorizing openings. If that means my rating stays low, that's ok. I would rather get stuck in the kids' section that spend my time trying to remember the fifth move of some "classical variation" of something or another.
When I first heard of Chess960, I thought it would be an up and coming thing, but I, too, now doubt that, for the same reasons you do. For better or worse, opening "theory" is part of the game, and all Chess has going for it is tradition. Playing a game that is a lot like Chess, but not the same, is just not likely to catch on.
I think more likely some other, completely different, game will eventually surpass Chess as the preferred "smart people's game". Maybe it will be Go. Maybe Arimaa. Probably something that hasn't been invented or at least hasn't really hit the mainstream. There's a niche for a pure mental competition with no luck involved. Chess has lasted in that niche for 500 years, but I'm not sure it will make it to 600. I think the memorization and the fact that computers play it better are both factors that work against its future.
As to the OP, Chess is a game. I don't understand why people think that spending a great deal of time on one game is worthwhile, but a different one is a waste of time. I don't care if it's Chess, or Chess960, or Hey, That's My Fish. They are abstract strategy, perfect information, games. None have luck. They are intellectual competitions. You will get better at those games if you study them. If you think that one is worthwhile, but the others are a waste of time, you have some prioritization issues.

I think the memorization and the fact that computers play it better are both factors that work against its future.
Though not in the near term it appears. I stopped playing in the seventies and since I've returned I find chess thriving more than ever. It's now truly a world game. We've had an Indian world champion. The strongest American player is Japanese-born. Judit Polgar, a woman, made it to the top ten for a period.
In the longer term we'll see.
You mentioned Go and it's an interesting alternative. Most westerners have no idea how big Go is in Asia -- forty million players. The board size is 19 x 19 which is too large for computers to crack with their brute force, minimax algorithms. Currently computer go programs remain far behind top professional go players.

If Chess960 did somehow achieve critical mass and become a standard game with millions of serious players, I suspect that opening preparation would not go away but become even more onerous as people would strive to work out the openings and families of openings for the other 959 starting positions.

White has an advantage for moving first. In the standard starting position that advantage is very small. I think the main reason why chess960 hasn’t taken off is that there are starting positions where white practically has a forced win. There are lots of ways this can be addressed.
One option is to trim down the 960 to only include positions that are roughly equal. So maybe 100 of the positions give white a huge advantage but the other 860 are roughly equal. The positions included/excluded could change over time as theory develops for them.
The other option is to adjust the expected performance or rating for the position. So an example would be if two players both rated 1500 are playing each other from a starting position where white has a big advantage, then black’s rating adjustment for the game might be calculated assuming that he is actually playing a 1700 rated player, and white’s rating adjustment would be calculated assuming that he’s only playing a 1300 rated player. Scoring for tournaments would be a lot trickier though.
Another option might be to set up some sort of barter system before the beginning of the game. If it is a position where the black player believes white has a big advantage then he can offer to give up a pawn in order to play as first. White would have the opportunity to give up more material to retain the first move.

I swear to God - threads like this need to stop showing up if anyone is to take these forums seriously.
I never take these forums seriously, because trolling is a lot more fun!

I play live blitz 960 on chesscube.It is essential to study the formation before making the first move....this can mean a 15-20 second delay.It is amazing how many opponents will abort during this sussing out time.

It is amazing how many opponents will abort during this sussing out time.
As in resign or refuse to play?
I knew some formations have undefended pawns vulnerable to bishop or queen as soon as a second rank pawn moves, but I didn't realize it was that serious.

I look for vunerable outside pawns [they would be rook pawns if the board was set for std chess] and work out which side I'd prefer to castle.
Rooks can be attacked by a bishop if the outside pawn is unprotected.
There can also be an unprotected pawn where the king can be checked by a knight. One game in which my opponent did not distinguish himself my 3 moves were knight moves..checkmate.
Ron, I am not saying that some would regard that as cheating, but I'm wondering if it is allowed, during a game, or if some would regard it as cheating some. I suppose the database would/could only be used up to a point in the game, unless both opponents are using the same database and copying the game moves. Is that allowed?
It is allowed but only for online (correspondence) chess. I think it's a little murky about how much you can use the database, but as long as you are still in book then you are definitely okay. It would be kind of funny if it wasn't allowed though. Just imagine you start with e4 and your opponent responds with e5. You wouldn't be allowed to study any openings that begin with those moves!