Is it bad or are my expectations too high?

So I kinda hate the game I'm in but the other players seem happy enough so I dont know if my standards are just set unrealistically high.

Background: I've been playing TTRPGs for over 10 years now. Mostly GMing. Started out with D&D but eventually pivoted towards other systems, more focused on narrative player driven exploration. I wanted to use my off weeks to be a player so joined a local club which had just started a D&D campaign, it's not my favourite system but it's what's available in my area.

I've been playing a few months and to say its on rails would be an understatement. We are teleported from one anime inspired set peice to the next, fighting monsters with no thematic cohesion at all to the point it seems like the DM is just flipping to a random page in the monster manual and throwing it at us. The combat isnt designed around the party, so its either a near tpk or we steam roll it, no inbetween. At most we are given a fork in the road choice with no context and I'm fairly sure just results in the same events.

The thing is, the rest of the players dont seem to think anything is wrong with this. Most of them (3 out of 5) are close friends of the DM, so I dont press them too much for their true opinion away from the table, but they mostly respond in agreement when the DM asks if people enjoyed the session.

I've tried to derail the story a little, suggesting leaving the obvious path, going to another town to recruit allies against the big bad, or trying to figure out where they may be going to cut them off at the pass but everyone just overrides the idea and goes with the flow. They just seem perfectly happy to be led along the story, which I just find so odd.

It's got to the point that its clear there is no point in trying to interact with NPCs beside the ones the DM puts in the path to exposit the story, trying to talk to common folk for info, or using spells like talk to animal just results in rude responses from the npc not wanting to talk to us, I got pretty vocal about the talk to animal thing not working to gain intel because its one of the few non combat abilities I have and its basically made useless because I can never get anything out of it. I did actually have a minor success at one point when I managed to give such an impassioned argument against a minor bad guy to join us, that the rest of the table basically peer pressured the DM into letting it work, but then at the very beginning of the next session they were immediately killed off without any possibility of us being able to do anything.

I also just dont care about the story. Big bad trying to overthrow gods, but there is no player drive, its not like we are in service of these particular gods, and for such a potentially cataclysmic event, no authorities seem to want to raise an army, just leave it to the band of level 3 adventures to deal with. I'm guilty of telling the same kind of story when I started playing but i feel like i actually put a bit of effort it into including political intrigue so maybe the GM just isnt telling it well but I just dont care...

I could overlook the flaws if the story was interesting to me perhaps, but again everyone else seems fine with it, though saying that no body else put any effort into a backstory or giving their characters motivations, they mostly just seem to want to be murder hobos. Its like a weird gaslighting experiment where everyone else is pretending to not notice how bad it all is?

I know I could just stop, but damn it, I like being a player and role playing a character over a campaign, and i like my character. I made an effort to create a person with motives tied to the story and I'm invested in seeing their character arc get resolved. A story of how revenge and anger can corrupt a person and eventually get those they care about hurt. I want them to sacrice themselves st the end to save the rest of the party, an idea i told the. DM early on but as the game continues, i feel they wont provide a suitable avenue for.

I'm not claiming that I'm some amazing story teller, my character arc is purposefully cliche and simple and I dont think I'm some master GM or anything either but I'm wondering if this is just how most game are nowadays? Just go along for a ride and dont make waves. Does my philosophy of player drive storytelling just not gel with normal groups? Should I just set my expectations lower and enjoy getting to roll some dice and stop winding myself up wanting something that just isnt going to happen in most public games with random people?

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent, feel free to tell me to quit, no d&d is better then bad d&d, talk to the table etc or that I'm being selfish and spoiling it for everyone else. Or just share your own experiences!