That was pretty much my point. Most kids won't use trig in real life, so making trig more interesting is only half of what we need to do. The other half is making kids more interested in learning.

Kids are interested in learning. Adults are interested in learning. The human brain is interested in learning. It becomes tremendously happy when it learns and so do the humans. The problem is that the brain doesn't like effort and is very good at thinking about things that are more fun to learn. There's skills that can help with directing it back, but they need to be learned.

Or drop the idea that everyone has to be forced to learn the same academically-inclined curriculum. Of course this is a non-starter, because it sounds like "giving up on" some kids.