Knowledge Domain Channel Divinity. What's the point?

It's certainly possible that I'm missing something but It's extremely underwhelming and pointless pointless at lower levels. Channel Divinity is a powerful, valuable, and limited resource. It should do more than cast a hand full of spells without a spell slot or material components. Especially with some of those spells are rituals without excessively expensive components and almost none of them at early levels as far as I can imagine are spells that would need to be cast in a hurry in combat. Can somebody explain how this is at all worth it when compared to other subclass Channel Divinities?

Scrying requires a focus worth 1000gp, a fragile focus hard to carry around safely on adventure. It takes 10 mins to cast. Pfffft Channel Divinity on the fly and you're in business instantly.

Yeah it's a bit niche, but it's about using it creatively.

If you want a CD effect that does damage or something then don't go knowledge ...

At level 9 or 10, spending your only 5th level spell slot on Scrying or Legend Lore is a heavy price. However, if you are about to take a Short Rest, you can use your Channel Divinity to cast the spell right before you rest and regain it when you are done. It lets you cast those spells with no cost at all so you can use your spell slot on something more valuable in combat.

So I'm right then. The only really good options don't come until level 9 and even those very situational and may or may not being useful from day to day. That should've been a "Wisdom modifier" or "Proficiency bonus" feature and had something with actual impact as a Channel Divinity.

At 3rd level the best spells to use your CD for are Detect Magic and Mind Spike.  Mind spike is obviously damage.  Detect magic is used as an action all the time when you don't have 10 minutes and absolutely need to find the magic thingy now.
Arcane Eye and Tongues are also excellent spells.  The ability to use those without having to use a spell slot allows you to use them far more often with less repercussions.

Sure but none of that feel worthy of CD. Other subclasses are doing much more that can have a real impact as soon as the CD becomes available. This just doesn't nearly stack up.

An instant Identify with no component cost seems very helpful.

It depends on your adventuring day on if it stacks up.  
Very sparse adventuring day where you always have slots left it will be less useful.
Very full adventuring day where you need more slots, it will be more useful.  
The ability to cast Tongues when you really need it without a spell slot means you have an unused 3rd level slot for Revivify when you really need it.  And it means when you might worry about spending your 3rd level slot on Tongues because it might solve the problem or not you can freely cast it.
Functionally in a full adventuring day you get 2 benefits. The first is using a spell to solve problems without using a spell slot. The second is that open spell slot and how you use it.   At level 9, that could be up to 4 5th level spells in a reasonable adventuring day.  And the spells we are talking about: Tongues, Legend Lore, Scrying, Arcane Eye are elite at solving specific problems.

I mean only the war cleric lets you use channel divinities to cast spells and none of those are 5th level. Of the knowledge domain spells you can cast with your channel divinity 3 of them are ones that you'd use as a ritual like detect magic, but sometimes you don't have 10+ minutes to cast a ritual. Legend lore, scrying, and identify also have a base casting time longer than an action and this lets you cast it as an action. They also have a component with a cost that you don't have to worry about. The knowledge domain's channel divinity is incredibly powerful for exploration but is basically useless for combat. That's probably why it feels underwhelming to you.

One thought experiment:
Level 3 you get the feature, Mind Spike does 3d8 psychic or half with wisdom save.   You have 6 total slots (4 1st, 2 2nd), and with one short rest 3 uses of channel divinity.  You now have 3 extra castings of Mind Spike.  While this is only single target damage and the rider of knowing where the enemy is for an hour is not usually relevant this is a significant  power up.  The concentration requirement for Mind Spike means it interferes with both Spiritual Weapon and Bless.  Regardless you walk into the day with more slots than any other caster at this level.  You also have Det Magic, Det thoughts, Identify, and Comp Languages as things you can 1 round cast without using a spell slot.

Level 5 Spirit Guardians is now in play and Mind Spike's concentration requirement is more problematic.  But when you run out of 3rd level slots in a long adventuring day Mind Spike still delivers some value (3d8 half is 13.5 / 6.75 which still outpaces your cantrips).  You now have Tongues to add to your out of combat problem solving tool belt and you don't have to explain to others why you are crudely taking 10 minutes to cast it.

Level 7 Still more uses for your concentration and more slots to pull it off.  At this point Mind Spike's concentration requirement makes it less valuable in combat.  Additionally your cantrip damage just got your Wisdom added to it meaning it now does 2d8+4(13 / 0) or 2d12+4 (17 / 0).  While the save for those cantrips are not for half the damage is comparable when they fail and those don't eat your concentration.  You add Arcane Eye which is an elite exploration spell.  it's so good and you can cast it for free your DM figures out ways to nerf it's effectiveness. Also at level 6 you got another usage of your channel divinity.

Level 9 I think Mind Spike is almost never going to be used in combat.  it's pretty well dead.  Scrying and Legend Lore adds more elite out of combat spells.  

Level 11 toll the dead is now doing 3d12+4 (23.5 save for none) and Mind Spike is no longer relevant.  This is now just a cost saving and out of combat feature.

Mind Spike does, though, mean that the target cannot evade you by turning invisible. As long as you focus on the target, it can run but it can not hide. Drop Toll the Dead a few times on the target and the target will no longer be a problem.