For people who are considering vegetarianism for environmental or health reasons, it's important to be able to say "You don't have to go without." Yes, there a

For people who are considering vegetarianism for environmental or health reasons, it's important to be able to say "You don't have to go without." Yes, there are a billion lovely things you can do with vegetables, but sometimes people are looking for a specific known quantity. Maybe it's a "food as a nostalgia/cultural heritage" thing-- you always had a hot dog when you went to the baseball game, now you can still get a Beyond Sausage. Maybe it's not yet being adventurous enough to try a meatless dish that stands on its own. Maybe it's trying to cater to an entire family, where other family members are eating meat and you want to provide something they'll be comfortable with. Even outside of the attempt to emulate meat, I give them credit for experimenting, because it expands the culinary vocabulary. Maybe those "realistic bones" can be used as part of an entirely novel dish to add texture or change how the cooking cycle progresses.