Personally I love roosters. But every rooster is different, with a wide variety of behaviors and reactions. Some are more useful than others.
The first Roo I had was a RIR Rooster given by a friend who couldn't have roos in his neighborhood. He was far too aggressive with both his hens and us, running to the edge of the fence and pacing angrily whenever he so much as saw someone walk outside. The hens were going bald, despite being 12 of them and one of him... so he became soup.
After trying to hatch eggs (12 hatched) we ended up with an even split. 6 roos, 6 hens. We kept 3 of the roos. One was a OEG bantam who thought he was the king of the flock (and he actually maintained king status among the 2 standards for 3 years). He was never people aggressive, and always responded to escort calls and protected lower-standing hens from bullies. Or at least, he tried to. In a flock of standards he could only do so much. The second was a standard. He ran from danger. Sometimes made an alarm call, sometimes didn't. He was pretty though and never people aggressive. He was actually very gentle. He was claimed last winter by severe frostbite on his legs. Then there was Vanilla. People aggressive, hen friendly, but with an incredible alarm call that we could hear no matter where we were in the house. This was important. One day a fox came on the property and I ran at it, and next thing I know Vanilla is shooting past me following the fox into the bushes. Luckily it was too intent on running from me to kill him.
We got 6 cockerels from his offspring this fall, and he was at the top of the flock. Unfortunately his people aggression only got worse while I moved away because of a job. He was slain this past week by an owl, of all things - it flew into the coop in the middle of the afternoon. Vanilla was found with his head missing, spurs soaked in blood. I like to 'think' his death was quick, and that he moved in front of the owl to protect the rest of the flock. I don't know, though. He was the only death.
Now his 6 sons, all young, beautiful cockerels are vying for the top spot. The bantam roo has been moved to the duck coop for his protection. 2 will be kept, the other 4 rehomed.
Unfortunately cockerels are simply too young to really know what they will turn out to be. None of them have been aggressive so far, but they're only 6 months old, and there's definitely time to change.
The most important thing a rooster can do (aside from breeding if you want chicks) is to raise a loud alarm whenever something is wrong. A rooster probably can't fight off a fox or hawk or owl, but if their alarm warns YOU something is happening you can definitely do something. I also love their appearances, and how they cluck to tell their hens there is something tasty on the ground. I also find that having a rooster keeps more bossy hens in line, and a good rooster may break up fights between hens that could result in trouble. Vanilla also protected his chicks from the more aggressive hens, allowing the entire flock to mingle as the chicks grew.
(on the other hand, you might just get a rooster that doesn't do anything useful...)
But remember, there is only ONE outcome to a rooster vs fox. Maybe the fox will take the rooster and not kill any hens. I would consider that a better outcome than losing a bunch of hens, although my preference would be not to lose anything.
