I dont think studying it is the problem, I really think its the way its presented
People study dead or dying languages all the time and in fact in Ireland, Irish (Gaelic) is taugh in public schools, but the general population wants to speak english
I was once at a small gathering of about 30 people. Maybe 3 of 4 spoke Yiddish. Someone got up to say a Dvar torah who was a native english speaker and purposely gave the dvar torah in Yiddish when he knew most people did not understand it without any translation. This would never occur in any other language. Can you imagine if this was ancient Greek , People would expect a translation or for the speaker to speak in English (Unless it was a seminar in Ancient Greek)