The place you’re right is in the “slab of meat” category: the only thing that’ll replace steak is lab-grown meat, and then only partially. And I agree that, eg bean burgers do well to market themselves as different. It’s a legit point.
But this new fake meat stuff reduced my meat intake significantly. It’s is FANTASTIC for replacing low-quality meat in a lot of cases. I have no need for ground beef/turkey/pork if I have beyond meat ground “beef” in a lot of cases. It’s a straight substitute, and I wouldn’t have thought about it that way if it was posed more narrowly.
I remember trying a Beyond Burger for the first time.
Overall impression was that had some fastfood chains replaced their patties with this, not only nobody would notice that what they're eating isn't actually meat, but also they would be happy with how the quality improved.
There's of course the question of price, but I'm sure with adequate scale it can be brought down.
I’m not sure “nobody” would notice. I’ve had impossible meat burger and beyond meat burger. The beyond meat was disgusting. It wasn’t even slightly convincing. Impossible was more convincing texture wise but taste wise it makes you look at what you’re eating cos it’s like “huh it feels like meat but doesn’t taste like it...”
In my experience, how they're prepared matters a lot. Strangely, I think Impossible Burgers (the ones I'm more familiar with) do worse when they're overcooked than actual meat does. The very first Impossible Burger I ever had was thick and cooked medium-rare, and it was terrific, pink on the inside and genuinely juicy. If I didn't know it was plant-based meat, I wouldn't have been able to tell you; it didn't taste quite like beef, but I might have guessed there was a little sausage or something else mixed in there. When I've had Impossible Burgers cooked fully through so they're more medium-well or above, though, the pea/grain flavor starts amping up quickly.
Yeah, the first Impossible Burger I had was prepared extremely well, and it was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. Not true for many other times I’ve had it.
But this new fake meat stuff reduced my meat intake significantly. It’s is FANTASTIC for replacing low-quality meat in a lot of cases. I have no need for ground beef/turkey/pork if I have beyond meat ground “beef” in a lot of cases. It’s a straight substitute, and I wouldn’t have thought about it that way if it was posed more narrowly.