I married a Vegetarian and I converted to a mostly Vegetarian diet myself and I have made a very real realisation over the last 10 years:
The one group that really hates Vegans more than meat eaters are Vegetarians. Veganism is making being Vegetarian increasingly harder. It's so hard to find a Vegetarian pizza nowadays with real cheese. It's either meaty or fully Vegan. Same for burgers. Vegetarians don't want to eat a shitty meat like patty. They want a Vegetarian burger, made of a bean patty, mushroom or some other vegetables which is not some form of dystopian processed food. Unfortunately Veganism has pushed all real Vegetarian burgers off the menus and repalced them with Beyond meat.
Look, I don't mind Beyond meat, I tried it and thought it was nice, but currently it costs as much as a real prime cut of beef which doesn't make sense to me and doesn't taste nearly as good. Our (Vegetarian) household actively refuses overpriced Vegan food because it starves menus of good creative Veggie options and therefore is a net harm at the moment.
I've been vegetarian for a couple decades and have no problem with vegans.
I don't think I've ever been to a pizza place that didn't just let me choose a vegetarian pizza with real cheese. I also love Beyond Meat, but most veggieburgers I ate prior to Beyond Meat were vegan too, though few places used cheese or egg. You can make a vegan black bean burger, or a great vegan portobello. Veganism isn't what converted places to Beyond.
Vegans are and were as happy as vegetarians to eat non-processed vegetables patties. I could push this point further by stating that a high percentage of vegans are turned off by the meatiness of those fake meat products. Those who pushed or asked for the product are companies and clients with an environmentalist motivation. It also appears that the product is easier to manage for restaurants which is also a reason why most restaurants are picking this product. The meat-like is really just an industrial product designed to please the largest crowd as possible which also includes vegans. So please, don’t say it’s the vegans that pushed all “real” options off the menu because the situation is much more complex than that.
“Veganism is making being Vegetarian increasingly harder.” This is a bold claim. Those people you met needs to chill because the problem you described is light years of being a “real” problem. Adding or removing ingredients is possible in most restaurants and quite easy: “Please can you substitute the absence of cheese or the vegan cheese for real cheese.”
In London (UK) Veganism is a REAL problem to Vegetarians. I am not saying that it is the Vegan people's fault, but simply that currently Veganism is the lowest common denominator between Vegans and Vegetarians and 7/10 restaurants have mostly replaced their Vegetarian options with Vegan options and Vegetarians are getting really pissed off.
Vegetarian here (though often I end up going many days without eggs or dairy), I don't have any beef with Vegans.
I'm fine with eating vegan options as well, I only use eggs and dairy products at home because I can't replace everything yet. I'm currently looking at some new egg replacement products, which would allow me to get far closer to the ideal, 100% vegan, diet.
That said, I actually like Beyond Meat, Moving Mountains, Nestlé's Garden Gourmet's Incredible Burger, Rügenwalder's products, etc. When I started living vegetarian in 2011, all the replacement products were shit and I ended up just making all food from scratch instead.
I'm genuinely happy that all these options exist nowadays, while I don't use them every day, they've become a staple of our diet by now, as they make adapting omnivore recipes much easier. I can always adapt it further later.
And I know some vegetarians who get "meat cravings" every few months, which these products help with – they allow fulfilling the craving without resorting to actual butchered animal flesh.
This is an unusual point, and one that I've never heard before.
If anything, since veganism started becoming popular, the options in restaurants have increased. There are places that previously didn't offer any or many vegetarian options, and now have more options (Gregg's and KFC are two that come to mind).
(Conspiracy hat on) I wonder if Big Meat is deliberately pushing veganism to dissuade vegetarianism similar to how Big Oil pushed for “carbon footprint”.
The one group that really hates Vegans more than meat eaters are Vegetarians. Veganism is making being Vegetarian increasingly harder. It's so hard to find a Vegetarian pizza nowadays with real cheese. It's either meaty or fully Vegan. Same for burgers. Vegetarians don't want to eat a shitty meat like patty. They want a Vegetarian burger, made of a bean patty, mushroom or some other vegetables which is not some form of dystopian processed food. Unfortunately Veganism has pushed all real Vegetarian burgers off the menus and repalced them with Beyond meat.
Look, I don't mind Beyond meat, I tried it and thought it was nice, but currently it costs as much as a real prime cut of beef which doesn't make sense to me and doesn't taste nearly as good. Our (Vegetarian) household actively refuses overpriced Vegan food because it starves menus of good creative Veggie options and therefore is a net harm at the moment.