A lot of the time I feel like health food is really just a way for manufacturers to cheap out and then sell something at a premium.

Margarine is vegan, but it was always just marketed as "cheap". Discerning or well-to-do consumers would just pass it up.

Now, people will put up with things that are very cheap to make, taste horrible, and are very expensive to buy.

That creates a problem: the food is becoming about the story and not the taste. That's not going to lead to good products; only good stories and packaging to tell the story. And bad products won't make for wide adoption.

Asking your customers to sacrifice gets you a small band of loyal customers, like a cult. But good products stand on their own and don't ask for sacrifice... think Tesla.