I even asked whether it would be feasible to raise the money to broadcast a few games a year as fans. IOW, if they had the money, would they do it?

The answer I got was that they had already decided not to broadcast rugby in their timeslots due to budgeting. If they decided to add it in, it would take away the timeslot for some other show that they HAD budgeted...

Sounds like faulty logic to me, but I let it go. Like you said, it will probably happen at some point, but it will take a looong time to get through to the bureaucracy.