why publish the APK if you know it won't work?
I've downloaded the pc version of the game and loaded into joiplay but i am getting an error
unsupported pickle protocol: 5
The answer to that question is that some people use Joi Play and still need the APK file to play the game. (Or any version of the game will work, the instructions above aren't suggesting you download the PC version, but rather use the android version with Joi Play - simple misunderstanding).
I'm sure you did your tinkering to arrive at the conclusion but - it has to due with Ren'py's inner workings and that's not really something I can fix.
However, explaining that to players does little to fix their problem, which is why I suggested Joi Play as a solution.