no, Honesty is not a "worthless" value in a 21st century society
1.
"boy who cried wolf" lesson
there is an old saying that
a liar may not be believed even if he tells the truth
people may not be convinced that what he is saying is true
so the opposite might be true
an honest person would believed
people would be convinced
person speaking honestly would be so practiced in speaking the truth
that the confidence would come through when he speaks
2.
also there is the matter of
reputation
we would not buy a brand of a product if it has a bad reputation
no matter how many bad products are out there we would try to find the
one product that has a good reputation from a company that honestly
tries to sell the product it says it selling
in the same way