> When was the last time you had a veggie thing that tasted remotely like beef?

Gardein grounds, and hamburgers. Not perfect, but exceptionally good.

Seitan isn't so far off in texture and meat like chicken is often more or less flavorless, so seitan can match it respectably well.

For what it's worth, I don't want veggie burgers to taste like beef. I want them to taste like a veggie burger. The ones that try too hard to taste like meat (save for this one perhaps), taste weird at best and terrible at worst. Beets, oats, and beans make for a pretty good meal.

For health reasons I don't eat much beef these days, so a veggie burger is the way to go at a lot of stands (or Chicken if I'm eating meat that day). I'm pretty happy deciding between the two instead of choosing one instead of the other.

I can appreciate the ideal of a marketable plant based product that tastes like beef but from a culinary standpoint I think it makes sense to just enjoy it for what it is. No one is trying to make Falafel taste like pulled pork. It's good as it is.