Struggling with Consider Phlebas as my second in The Culture

I've heard many great things about The Culture series and universe and have finally gotten around to it, I've read a number of sci fi in the past including 95% of Peter Hamilton's work, various Alistair Reynolds, Christopher Ruochio's Suneater, Cixin Lius Three Body Problem and others.

I read Player of Games to start with due to recommendations on this sub as a decent starting point, and felt it took a little to get going but generally didn't mind the build and quite enjoyed it the further it went on, particularly when Gurgeh was abroad.

Consider Phlebas though, Hawsa (audio book) is on Vavich orbital and it's going to shit. But I just don't care about anything or any of the characters.

It feels like it entered the book in the overarching plot and universe - the war between the idirans and the culture, then went okay, there's what's going on and what you should care about, now we're gonna go follow this character 50 steps removed from the plot and tag along with seemingly pointless adventures with little to nothing to do with the plot.

I don't care or see the relevance about their pirate antiques, the planets and orbitals their going to seem irrelevant, the characters seem irrelevant, the stakes are non-existent or detached from what I would call the point of the book - the war - and there seems no end in sight until Hawsa gets to Shars world, which could be in the last third of the book for all I know.

The only interesting parts have been Hawsa as a prisoner, and the culture intellect considering the problem of the war.

How far along does what's happening become relevant?

Does it become relevent? Do you eventually care about the characters in this one? Are their clear stakes eventually? Is there a plot eventually? Or should I move on to a different one.

Seriously considering skipping chapters at this point.