Penny,
Interesting point! and no, you haven't offended me lol
I think that some
veggie food can be 'meaty' in the sense of being hearty and satisfying, without being 'meaty' in the sense of being an analogue to a bit of animal flesh on the plate.
A nice big, marinaded grilled portobello mushroom comes to mind for the former category.
Whereas something like quorn, made in industrial sized vats of some weird concoction and mycoprotein made into a stringy, muscular like texture is pretty freaky, IMO.
Seitan, to me, is pleasantly substantial and flavoured, without being freakily meat textured (in the vacuum pack form... the stuff in tins does look a bit too spookily like duck!) It also has the added bonus of being a traditional foodstuff of the East for 100s of years, and hence can be home-made.... if I had the confidence to take a leap and have a go, as it does have the reputation for being a bit tricky to make!
I think the main issue for veggies is ethics rather than taste, in that animals didn't suffer to produce a meal, and you don't have all the environmental implications & pollution of animal agriculture.