> which makes any vegetarian or vegan diet suboptimal because of all the processed and overly packaged foods I don't get why vegan and vegetarian food are high

> which makes any vegetarian or vegan diet suboptimal because of all the processed and overly packaged foods I don't get why vegan and vegetarian food are highlighted here. People eat plenty of packaged or highly-processed meats, too. If anything, most raw items that don't require cooking are probably vegan, and there is no shortage of low-prep ones.