Being polite in a world of shifting priorities? Maybe they fully intended to dedicate time to it but another emergency/high priority pushes it down again. Or they want to work on it, and don't want it to be taken away, but haven't had the time yet.

All of these seem more charitable, and contribute less to a toxic work environment, than automatically assuming that all of your colleagues are manipulative, dense or flaky because they have more important things to do.