FWIW, my opting out of meat entirely has motivated at least a few others to do the same. On a larger scale, I've seen an increase over the last 10 years in the number of vegetarian restaurants and vegetarian offerings in general-menu restaurants. I'd say there has been some change in the industry, driven by people who have opted out of meat entirely.
Even if you're skeptical about just how much change any one person can effect I fail to see how one might go about changing an industry while not at the same time demonstrating commitment to the ideals feeding that desire for change.
"Meanwhile, as vegans focus on the elimination of meat from our diets, they practically ignore the industrialized food that wreaks direct reproducible havoc on our metabolisms causing epidemic obesity and diabetes"
Really? I've not seen that. If anything the vegans I've encountered, either personally or through books and magazines, seem quite zealous about replacing meat with quality nutrition. In fact, I don't see how one can be a vegan and not have to bend over backwards to select food carefully.