I think we should all take a moment to remember that it was indeed "Their Finest Hour". The crew of the Collossus and the rest of the attacking ships drew off multiple wings of fighters, at least two cruisers, a Ravana class destroyer, and one Sathanas class Juggernaught. That's not exactly pointless in my estimation. The destruction of the fighter wings and the Ravana undoubtably saved some lives in terms of drawing off an entire destroyer and it's fighter compliment.
Now, that being said, there is something else we should all remember. Command makes decisions based on the particular mood they're in. Intelligence is a moot point with them, since they apparently don't listen to the SOC at all.
Snipes: Yes, that's right. Alpha 1 and I just returned from our scouting mission. There's at least eighty juggernaughts heading straight for Capella. You've got to do something!
Command: It's already been taken care of Snipes, no need to worry.
Snipes: So I assume you'll have forty Mjolinir sentry guns, plus the Collossus and six destroyers waiting at the node?
Command: Oh heavens no. Why would we waste such valuable resources? We'll just draw them in and send in the Collossus.
Snipes: You're not serious.
Command: It'll be easy. We'll just use our other ships as sacrificial shields, while the Collossus single handedly jumps each and every Sathanas until we get them all.
Communications Officer: Uh, command, what about the Bastion and the Meson bombs?
Command: Oh, darn. I guess we'll need a much bigger sacrificial shield. Send in the Collossus, a Sobek, and Aeolus, and a Mentu. That'll really irk the Shivans.
Snipes: And just how do you intend to keep them alive?
Command: By sending in Alpha 1, of course.
Alpha 1: What did they say?
Snipes: It looks like you really do fly more than one suicide mission.
