It's fine for you to feel this way, but obviously players around the league disagree.
There's a reason waivers are not usually used, unless you absolutely need to get a player out of the locker-room, or need to make way for other bodies (which is why goalies might get waived easier). Because it does almost nothing to your cap situation. A trade is always more preferable. Thus, players actually see that NTC as protecting them just as well as waivers, because teams usually don't put players who have problem contracts to waivers (goalies being the exception, because they have to).