It's definitely a lifestyle/mindset and convenience thing. I can make a delicious, more nutritional mac and cheese from scratch in about the same time as from a

It's definitely a lifestyle/mindset and convenience thing. I can make a delicious, more nutritional mac and cheese from scratch in about the same time as from a box and I often do. It requires my attention for 3x as long, though, and dirties twice as many dishes to wash up afterwards (I use a saucepan to prepare a roux to make a smooth, less calorie dense sauce.) If my toddler is melting down from hunger, it's less stressful to whip up box mac and cheese. Many people don't realize how easy cooking staples can be and are intimidated, or lack the interest to figure it out. That likely correlates strongly to the lifestyle they were raised in. Also, most folks' psyches seem tightly coupled to the foods they were exposed to at a young age. If someone was raised eating Kraft, that's naturally what they'll think of as mac and cheese, and they may never revisit that association as an adult. Scratch / improvised cooking is a skill that takes practice to be good at. Personally, I enjoy it as a hobby. My mom cooked a lot, but made very bland food. I regularly pick out a random food I enjoyed from childhood, then figure out how to make it authentically. Last month I figured out perogies (I cheated on the mashed potatoes). Last week I made a delicious seared lamb with fennel and tomatoes (I've been watching a lot of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares lately). Over the last two years I've optimized my sourdough technique to the point that it's boring (although I still wish I could get a more sour flavor!) I learned how to make proper wood fired pizza in Italy before COVID, and I'm still enjoying optimizing that at home, and starting to experiment with sicilian style.