I remembered that when Pence’s name came up as the VEEP choice. I thought it was a joke that Trump picked him. When it wasn’t I realized that Pence was Trump’s GHW Bush.
Yes, Trump needed to shore up support among religious/social conservatives and Pence helped with that. That’s about all he was good for.
In the case of Trump though, picking Pence was a forced error. After the Access Hollywood tape came out and there was the fear of losing the Christian base he needed a "strong Christian" on the ticket. And along with the 'strong Christian' came the Trojan horse.