So far I have not been able to come up with a good way to implement them. I can't set them up with tripwires or anything because my caravans would set them off (I assume) so my only other option is rig them to a switch and hope my settlers have enough intelligence to use it at the right time, which I seriously doubt. So my question, are they pointless or is there a good way to implement them?

I have not used them since I am worried that settlers and traders will set them off, maybe even companions will set them off.

I might try it at a location that is only for me when I decide to do a playthrough with no companions.

Here's how it works.

You hook your tripwires up first, make sure there is a computer hooked up somewhere on the power grid.
On the computer, you tell it that the tripwires are only to activate on hostiles

When that is taken care of, you hook up your traps directly to the tripwire. It's ok if only one of them is connected to the tripwire, as long as the rest of them has been daisy chained to that one trap, and then so on.

Unpopulated settlements. Ones even you don't go to that often.

That's about it - otherwise you have to hook them up to a discreet switched power grid and activate them manually during an attack (and your Settlers will still set them off).

My take is "why blow mats and power on a consumable weapon when a Turret in the same place will be more effective and more efficient?".

TL;DR: Traps are a red herring mats-sink. Use turrets instead.

Actually, traps are really powerful and effective. It just tears up anything that runs through it, while turrets are required to focus on a single target till that target is dead, or it's agro has been swapped.

Ahhhh, of course - terminals. Thank you! Now I don't feel scammed.

I stand behind the preference for turrets, tho.

Oh cool, thanks. I keep forgetting about the terminals. I've barely begun to scratch the surface of what terminals can do by using them with light boxes.

Would you please stop undoing my arguments before I make them?!? ?

But like in every other situation.. they probably only are useful if you are in the area physically fighting during a settlement attack. Seems like no matter how well you build your defenses... If you do not go help the settlement when it is under attack, it'll count as a "failure." Which is quite dumb.