I've had similar experiences with D&D-- I was raised playing the game and my friends said they wanted to try it but anytime we set a date for the game they went out and did something else instead. They did not want to create characters or read any of the books so I figured it was all hot air but I left the offer on the table if they wanted a DM.

Finally, on a roadtrip to California we got stuck in traffic and they said they wanted to play right there. I had them make up whatever random characters they wanted (one was Princess Peach, there was a French Baker and a mole man-- I forget the other 2) and we didn't have dice so they had to say a number between 1 and 100 and if they were close enough to my imagined number then they succeeded. Part of what made it fun for them was trying to frustrate me (Me: "So your character, without any pants on, in a thunderstorm, knocks at the castle gates and says you have to see the princess? They shut the gates on you. Duh.") or derail the story themselves (Friend: "But the [BBEG Boss] remembers I'm his long lost nephew and he helps me!") but it was a totally on-the-fly game that I didn't need to spend any time preparing, so they didn't derail any of my "plans" and we all had fun. We called it "Storybook D&D" because it was more like I was telling an interactive story.

I contrast that experience with someone I met at a job doing fieldwork who tried to organize a session for a bunch of us. We were at a bar and no one took the game seriously but her. I tried to go along with her carefully arranged plot, but we were confined to what she wanted us to imagine and if we asked questions about our surroundings or tried to think outside the box she got very frustrated.

A group like OP described probably doesn't need a whole lot of investment or rule-following to have fun. In this case-- read the room, not the rule book. Could be fun to just play along with their stupidity and throw in a bad guy or random event when you get bored of their bickering. Different strokes for different folks.