Speaking for myself, I can’t think of any instances in my day-to-day life where I witnessed some kind of unfolding disaster or felony-in-progress where I could have stepped in and saved the day if only I had some kind of superpowers at my disposal. It makes me think about how most (good) cops spend their entire careers without firing a shot, and even a substantial portion of soldiers often make it through a war without ever firing on the enemy. Fighting bad guys just isn’t something that most people spend much time doing, and you would have to spend serious effort seeking out such encounters if that’s your main gig.
In many cases the most useful thing that superpowered individuals could do to help society is to provide cheap, plentiful energy. Think of how much coal wouldn’t need to be burned if X-men’s Cyclops just stared at a boiler all day (maybe listening to podcasts or something) and generated phenomenal amounts of green energy.
