There are a lot of fictional stories that have made HUGE impacts on societies.
Fiction has been told for years, and can be used to teach useful, life situations...
Fables, for example, are always fiction, yet they teach moral standpoints and cultural beliefs and customs for younger children.

You can definitely learn from fiction. It's a poor argument to call it a waste simply because "you can't learn from it".

Many scholars actually study pieces of fiction to get a better understanding of literature and imagination. "Lord of the Flies" for example, read by scholars and students for years, and is still being studied today. A book about a bunch of boys trapped on an island that start killing each other? Has nothing to do with the time era, nothing to do with technical skills, or really moral standpoints either... Why would they study it if they felt that it wasn't important?

Edgar Allen Poe's work also opened up doors for psychologists to discover new mental conditions and states of mental health. Not only that, but it helped for horror directors to learn what techniques to use to create horrific images and scenery. Without that, those poor directors would never make enough money to eat. Fiction helps us a lot, in more ways than not.

While, I'm not saying that non fiction is bad, or not useful, no. But I could never say that fiction is a waste of time.