He recognizes vegetarianism as ethically good while also recognizing that pushing those personal ethics on others often results in a net bad. That's how I read

He recognizes vegetarianism as ethically good while also recognizing that pushing those personal ethics on others often results in a net bad. That's how I read it at least, and it sounds like a responsible way of handling personal values. That said, if we do want more people to be vegetarian, then instead of simply making minimal hassle for others, we could also take the opportunity to proactively educate in a caring manner. If we want a vegetarian world, then instead of scrounging for sides at a dinner party, we could redefine the party to be a collaborative cooking one, or we could try to do more potluck, or we could be more proactive about choosing the meal venue. Those options take extra effort and aren't even possible a lot of the time, so I feel like OP's non-aggressive stance is a really respectable default.