The President of the United States Doesn't Matter

I was raised to not publicly speak of politics and religion. The main reasons are it isn't polite, you're not going to change anyone's mind, and one side of my family consists of uber-religious right-wing conservatives ... so there's that. At family reunions I kept my mouth shut and a wide-eyed, apathetic smiling face plastered on no matter what the topic and, let me tell you, the topic gets controversial. I consider it training for the real world where everyone has an opinion, hidden agenda and a Smartphone.
With soapboxes at the end of our finger tips, I understand I'm not the norm. The election is months away and social media platforms are swamped with political mumbo jumbo. Trump! Clinton! Some Libertarian from the land of "Sicario" - which my liberal mother refers to as "throwing your vote away." Am I the only person who sees the president as a figurehead?
Does no one worry about Congress and its great ability for making no progress? Politicians who have been "serving" for decades with so many corporations in their pockets they are the biggest whores of D.C. Filibusters and nonsense. Saving themselves from bankruptcy at the last possible moment. Bickering and arguing like school children. Historically you can expect a different majority party in Congress than the elected president. Doesn't that even out, or even cancel out, the absurdity we would get from Clown School Drop Out Donald Trump or Barbaric Predator Kankles Clinton?
At the end of the day, does the president matter? Isn't the president more of a cheerleader than a policymaker? I'm not talking in absolutes but in terms of overall. Do you know your senator? What about your representative - who, like the word, literally represents YOU? Isn't Congress more important than the president in terms of things that affect everyday people? And, if this is true, why aren't we more concerned with Congress?
Or, I could get really apathetic on you and say does any of this matter? If every politician is a puppet with its strings controlled by who knows what then ... what does it matter?