I'd say that there is a huge middle ground of coders who want to improve, but have business drivers that have stopped it from happening. And if approached correctly, improvement is possible.
Overnight change is an unreasonable expectation. But incremental improvements over the status quo absolutely can happen. You do need to approach it expecting it to take time - storming into a dev team and declaring all things must change won't go well. But picking one improvement, talking to the team about it, talking to your leadership about the cost/benefit of making the change, and then getting a consensus to make a change.... that should work. Repeat that process, and not only will you improve the team over time, but you will show yourself to be a leader and improve your career.