I very firmly believe that a large portion of the human population would benefit from sitting quietly for a few hours a week, following the rise and fall of their breath. This alone has benefits for reducing stress and anxiety. One day i would like to do a comparative study of blood cortisol levels between people who pursue a meditative practice and those who don't. I agree that a lot of nuance is lost in the secularized translation, but I don't think it's completely unrecoverable. And I definitely think that there is a tangible value in the practice before you start applying it to changing (idealizing) ones behavior. I sit for few hours a week. Maybe 25% of the time I'll use a guided track from wildmind.org. I find that when I am sitting regularly, I am typically less reactive, less stressed, more capable of healthy decision making. If a person is routinely feeling really anxious or depressed, the simplest meditations can be really subjectively beneficial.
I agree that the lost nuance can be recovered. I'm actually all about the secularization of mindfulness and meditation. It can remain an extremely valuable spiritual practice full of variation and nuance without being tied to anything mystical or supernatural, which is not my thing. I too notice daily benefit from my practice, and a lot of my day-to-day practice is based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, but I still would not really call myself a Buddhist.