I encounter so many people with the mentality that a confusing door isn't that big of a deal. These are the kinds of folks who don't care that the switch on the right controls the lamp on the left, and vice versa. "So what? You figured it out, it's not that hard." This attitude becomes a frustrating challenge when everyone else on the team is fine with a design the way it is and can't see why anything should be spent on trying to improve something that already works. It ends up being much like defending the validity of your job.
How do you go about explaining that good interface design is important? What's the best way to help people understand why they shouldn't have to "figure it out" no matter how simple it might be to do so? Is it a hopeless crusade to convince users that they should care?
In my wisdom (and I consulted with GU on this one), you are in the wrong, for when "everyone else on the team is fine with a design the way it is" who r u to claim that they are all out of step and it is only you who is in step?
You ask: "Is it a hopeless crusade to convince users that they should care?"
Are we not in the profession of satisfying users? If users don't care, then it is our solemn duty to deliver upon that absence of care. You should spend your efforts on more worthy causes, such as why you are building products with lamps and switches when you could develop a simple hierarchical menu with modal dialog box to do the same function.