This is really the first question the OP should ask himself, before asking whether the annual fee is worth it. The best approach is to set a general goal, like "I want 160,000 points so I can transfer them to United to redeem for a business class award ticket to Asia." Then, based on your spending pattern, the bonuses available, etc, you can figure out the best strategy to get there using the CSP and/or other cards. It might take longer using some strategies, but you incur less in annual fees (e.g., open CSP now, collect bonuses, then downgrade to CS at 1 year); other strategies might get you the points faster, but you end up paying more in annual fees (e.g., to collect the 7% annual bonus, you keep the card open and pay the fee).

To give you an example, in my case, I'm really interested in premium cabin award tickets to Europe or Asia. I don't know where exactly I'll be going 3 years from now, but I know roughly what the cost is in miles. Even though I pay a couple of hundred dollars per year in annual fees to CSP and a UA-branded card, the total amount I have to pay per ticket I ultimately obtain amounts to less than the cost of a comparable coach ticket. But I'm flying in F or J, so it's worth it to me. So I don't worry about "cents per miles" and so on - the ultimate question is whether the cash cost is worth the outcome to me.