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We eat way more meat/dairy than our ancestors did (after we switched to farming, because we killed off most of the megafauna).

It's got nothing to do with "copying" developed nations, though. We're simply becoming rich enough to afford it. Eating meat every day used to be prohibitively expensive. That's changed.

It's cheap because we destroy nature in the process, and those externalities are not priced in ... in fact, most of the meat/dairy production is heavily subsidized.

It's affordable, yes. But it's not sustainable.

While true, I think the quantity is abnormal in terms of human history, since meat used to be considered a luxury item.

And there are some cultures that lived exclusively on meat based diets

Like who? Inuit, who live where plants don't grow? Historical Mongolians, until cereal crops were introduced to their lands? Nomadic Masai who don't stay around for crops?

Can't think of anyone else, without a similar exceptional reason.