otiose

Otiose describes something that serves no practical purpose or produces no useful result.

An otiose argument is pointless; an otiose clause in a contract adds nothing meaningful.

The word can also characterize people who are idle or ineffective, though this sense is less common.

Otiose carries a tone of intellectual criticism—it's the kind of word you'd find in academic writing or literary criticism to dismiss something as superfluous.