I have seven kids. Parents don't have almost complete control over their kids at this age.
>I either ate breakfast and packed a lunch or went the day hungry.
Yes, a lot of kids will actually fast and make themselves ravenous, have blood sugar crashes, be unable to concentrate, act badly towards classmates, etc. rather than eat the food they don't prefer. Some will lose weight. One of mine in particular will fast for _days_ until eventually someone will feed him something sweet. It's a real problem. In his case he'll sometimes eat a dinner one day, then a week later refuse the same food, until we wear him down until he will finally take a bite, then he'll realize he likes it, and eat a full meal. If he is not actually with us, though, we can't force his behavior like that.
This is especially true of kids who are "on the autism spectrum," and I suspect that a lot of HN readers have kids on the spectrum, as I do.
We feed the kids the healthiest food we can at home, almost all the time except for occasional special occasions. But _other_ well-meaning people at churches, schools, playdates, etc. can really screw up the eating habits a parent tries to instill.