Not being a meteorologist, I can't comment on how much the current circulation over the US and Canada either does or doesn't resemble the signature of El Niño, but I can point out that all of the "typical" and "iconic" patterns that our bloggers talk about as being characteristic of El Niño or La Niña are seasonal averages. We are two weeks into a three-month season, so whatever the current state of the atmosphere, it can't really be considered as evidence for or against a good match with a seasonal-scale pattern.

Your broader point (that the influence of El Niño and La Niña can be and often are overwhelmed by other atmospheric actors), that's a reality our bloggers don't shy away from discussing. NOAA's seasonal forecasts aren't based solely on some kind of ENSO binary, in which forecasters decide in the fall that El Niño is here and then take the rest of the winter off. This blog has always been straightforward about the limits of  seasonal forecasts in general, as well as the limits of ENSO as influence on those forecasts.

But over the years, we have also provided plenty of evidence that suggests your statement about "futility" is an exaggeration. Simple statistics show that there are locations in the U.S. that are more likely to have wet/dry/warm/cool winters during El Niño and La Niña. Sure, we can debate exactly how reliable a signal would need to be in order to be useful for a given purpose, but its just not "fair" (i.e. consistent with the data) to say that ENSO has no utility for seasonal forecasting.