That's exactly my point as well. Also the health benefits of learning a few from scratch fast recipes would be extremely beneficial as it allows you to control exactly what is in your food. My guess is that people who use convenience foods still probably make the same 8-10 dishes over and over so whey not learn to make that many from scratch then you would still not have to do much thinking about it. The occasional use of convenience foods is not a problem but using them pretty much exclusively I believe is dangerous for over all health.

Sometimes, I use the box mix stuff as a base for whatever. Like tonight I'm starting with a box gumbo mix and I'll add my own spices, chicken/shrimp, okra, onions, garlic and mebbe some cayenne to 'kick it up'. I can't stand at the stove for any long period of time anymore (like the time it would take to make a roux) so the boxed stuff helps a bit.