Networking is about meeting people you can get along with who maybe, one day, some day, if things work nicely, might have a mutual benefit. You don't begin it with a pretense about what they can do for you now. That sort of opportunism is phony and can be smelled from a mile away. Networking works best when you just meet people to become friends with them, then hope to figure out ways you can help them, as friends do. My experience is that people pay it back in spades.
If it were just about merits, resumes would be a thing that actually worked and were important. Conferences are about networking and networking is about socialization.
Yeah, it could be years before the networking you do today pays off. That's just the way it is. You're dealing with people, not machines. It's like dating, you can't magic up a spell to make someone like you. People have their own agency, but they tend to congregate around and like to help out other people who are friendly and helpful without expecting anything in return, too.