It's not that I disagree with you, I just can't help but think at this point they're screwing themselves up more than Frank could. Lip's a perfect example of it. He's getting everything handed to him, yet he's turning it all down because he has a self defeating thing going on. Fiona is also happy with shit work (literally) rather than continue the whole going to community collage thing. Frank isn't doing any of that.. he's busy being gay/not gay.
I agree about Frank. He's been independent since the legal guardianship was awarded to Fiona and his storyline has been fantastic, IMO.
I agree about Lip. They even specifically spoke about it in one episode where he and Fiona argued that Lip needs to finish up high school and be successful but he didn't want to become some lame 9 to 5 dude or something. I can't remember the exact dialogue.
I disagree about Fiona, though. I think she has tried to improve her situation but she just ends up having to ditch those efforts because of something with the kids or the efforts themselves just result in nothing (like the club manager position). I think the college thing is just too difficult due to the time commitment or is just too expensive to risk any of the money they need for priorities like mortgage/rent/bills.