Since we're talking about Swift generics here, you have to realize that the point is not whether generics / static typing can be useful, but if the type of generics and static typing as enforced by Swift is good enough.

The problem here is that Swift has incomplete generics. In several aspects they are significantly worse than even Java's(!)

Together with its brand static typing and type inference that doesn't always work, you are really working against the compiler to get things to work. Not because you get the types wrong, but because you have to work around the incompleteness of the generics implementation!

Swift is not Haskell and should not be mistaken for it. The problem with Swift's generics is one of incompleteness, inconsistencies and problematic trade-offs to maintain ObjC compatibility.