Company cut variable bonus to 0.5 month, is negotiating pointless?

Push back, but do it smart. Variable bonus is discretionary so you can't demand it, but you CAN make your manager go to bat for you. I did this: booked a calm 1-on-1, didn't complain about the number, instead asked "help me understand how the pool was allocated given my exceeds rating, because I want to make sure I'm being calibrated fairly vs peers." That reframed it as a fairness question, not a tantrum. Turned out the cut was a blanket across the team regardless of rating, which is actually a red flag that ratings are meaningless there. In my case I got a small adjustment plus a commitment to a mid-year salary review. If they won't budge and top performers get the same as coasters, that's your signal to start looking, because staying means subsidising the underperformers.