Although you have a point with regards to drafting a franchise altering player in the #1 and #2 positions of any given draft, it is not impossible to build a successful team with proper scouting and development. Admittedly, some of this franchises greatest teams were built behind players drafted early on, such as Alexei Yashin who the team in turn flipped into Spezza and Chara. It could be argued that we would never have acquired the 2nd overall pick if not for Yashin, however the team was able to pull some magic by transforming a former #12 overall pick (Hossa) into a former 2nd overall pick (Heatley). Now say what you will about their overall careers, which is a different argument entirely, but Heatley did provide the franchise with three to four solid years of high caliber goal scoring and as a cog in arguably the greatest line in hockey at the time.
It also goes without saying that some of the more dominant teams of the past decade had at least one player drafted in the top 3; Crosby, Ovechkin, Kane, Doughty, Malkin, Stamkos, Hedman, Toews. Not surprising that most of these teams have multiple cup wins, however, it is imperative to remember that a team can be built to compete for a championship with draft picks outside of the top 10 and I'll use Ottawa as a relevant example:
If we look at some of this franchises best players of all time, it could be argued that only one of them was drafted in the top 3 of an entry draft and that player is Jason Spezza. The rest, in no particular order of course, are Alfredsson (133rd), Karlsson (14th), Stone (178th), Hoffman (129th overall), Chabot (17th), Hossa (12th), Martin Havlat (26th), Fisher (44th), Vermette (55th), Kelly (94th), Foligno (26th) to name a few. Ironically, some of this team's luck with top 10 picks hasn't quite been something to shine light on, with the likes of Daigle, Berard (luckily flipped for Redden), Brian Lee (still a question mark to this day), Cowen (no longer in the NHL), Zibanejad (no longer here).
Some will disagree of course, but I am of the belief that losing should only come as a last resort, the goal is to always win games and be competitive season after season by making good trades and putting draft picks (regardless of how high or low) in a position to get the proper training and development required to compete at an NHL level.