I believe, if not with technical analysis, how else can we determine the direction to buy or sell. at least it helps compared to having to just guess. As far as usage goes, I get premium signals with technical analysis, they are quite accurate, although not 100%, but for me that is enough proof that this is quite accurate and profitable.
You are right, without technical analysis of course we would have made the decision to buy or sell only based on the feelings we have and it would be very unlikely that we would be able to get the profits that we would get, if by using technical analysis we would not be able to get our profits. It is still possible to improve the analysis that we use to be able to gain from the trading that we do.
Technical Analysis predict the next possible direction of the price we can't trade successful without TA candlestick patterns itself reveal alot about end of a trend, continuation of price and beginning of a trend, once a trader grasp the whole idea of technical analysis it becomes easier to take a trading decision at the appropriate time, though Fundamentals do move the price hence when a positive or negative fundamental news is released, price tend to either change direction of the present trend or reverse completely, however the candlestick patterns unveil itself in tune with the present or lastest condition of the market which indicates a trading setup.