I agree completely. If meat is so bad why spend so much time looking for ways to make fake meat dishes?
I'm on a pretty restricted diet and everything fake sucks. Better to lean in and focus on finding the best of the food that is available to me.
Discussion
Traditional dishes do not include lentils that look like meat for a reason. It's a shitty way to cook them. They are dry and taste bland.
Same applies to pretty much every other fake meat dish.
Instead, just make a fucking stew with them and some other veggies.
Vegetables are side dishes.