Blue Apron is not for people who want to _eat_, it's for people who want to _cook_ but don't want to shop, transport things home, or meal plan.
This is where the price premium is worth it to some people.
This is where the price premium is worth it to some people.
For the record I believe you have the nail on the head, as to the value of that service.
I don't buy a bunch of portioned ingredients for a set of rescipies, just a lot of basic ingredients and some wild cards to keep it interesting. As long as you have a good set of spices, oils, and garnishes you can find some way to prepare your random leftover ingredients into something pretty good.
I remember just hanging out with my mom/dad/grandparents when I was a kid watching and helping them cook. I always thought that was pretty standard along with watching and learning about all kinds of other household tasks. Is that not the case anymore? It just seems like such a basic life skill.
We avoid the dreaded, "What do you want?" questions around meals and the app's autogenerated shopping list has really helped us reduce food waste and avoid worrying that we're missing one or two ingredients when cooking a meal.