Well say for futures, you could combine it with PA (Price action). For example, say RSI is oversold for example at the bottom, and you have spent 10,000 hours watching PA on a chart in real time, you would use a PA pattern to enter into a long setup. This PA pattern you would have back tested over the 10,000 hours you spent developing your system that has a reliable edge. What many people make a mistake in TA is that they use an indicator by itself without any context what so ever, and expect it to give them a setup to enter long or short. I myself made this mistake when I started trading by going long when stoch was at bottom or short when it was at top only to be stopped out.
Context...is key, vital, elemental, crucial, in trading. So many people simply learn, read, observe, Stare blindly at this game of trading by staring and assuming basic lines are their predictable yellow brick gold road to riches. But basically have no depth, understanding, reason, rationale, behind what they are seeing at the surface. If tracing lines...were that easy and profitable...you would have millionaires left and right and north and south of you. But that's not the case in this world. I always roll my eyes, smirk and sigh and get irritated...when I see someone across social media pitching, selling, such generic bs. Simply tracing lines, technical analysis ... that's like being racists or intolerant to another group, because you observed someone else to be. A good/great, excellent, trader is practically a Psychologist, and detective. And philosopher. You Have to be.
Context is important in our discussions only. I trade stocks exclusively and wouldn't know a thing about futures, options and whatever else is being trades out there. OP's question seems to be referring to stocks but that would be the first clarification needed. RSI, like many other studies, is rather limited to help me make a decision now since it reflects seconds ago and prior. I run it and check it for context but don't use it to decide if I'm going to buy or sell.
I only swing trade stocks and in lieu of the RSI I prefer Keltner channel,they both basically do the same thing. And even then I take what it's telling me with a grain of salt.
I think the RSI is most useful as a divergence tool relative to price especially near extremes. Higher price with lower RSI especially RSI>75 is generally a good sell and vice versa. I saw this pattern with the vaccine stocks a few weeks ago and even AMD after its last earnings when it kept going higher but the RSI was going down. Eventually when the WSB traders got tired of pumping it daily it went from $122 to $105 in a matter of days.
Overtime, you should be able to look at a chart even without any indicators and just know where price is going to go in the future. Also, you should be able to determine what price is doing at any given time for example, is it trending down, has the trend ended. Is there accumulation. You should also know what times of the day or night are good to trade. Is price just in say a barb wire configuration and trending sideways where you don't want to be in a trade. There are no substitutes to screen time. No indicator will make you a better trader. I am not at a previous posters level but this person on ET was able to create an always in system, where you are always in a trade, you take profits on the turns. So for example you know price is going down, you then know price is going to go up so you get out of your short at a profit and then go long. However, I think this would be hard to do in real time, you would have to devise an AI to trade it for you. My level is that for example, I can sometimes know that price will no longer go down, and will in fact go up. However, I don't know how far it will travel in any given direction. This does not mean price will start moving in the direction I want right away. I could be in a trade for 1 hour before actual real movement takes place. However, I have a stop at the place where the market says my theory is no longer correct. As long as your win% is high, you don't need to be right all the time.
I like to use it in combination with a few other indicators. Can be good on 5 minute for scalping, but trade with the trend and know when to cut it