That has always been my experience (lifetime cat owner), but I’ve also seen friends/family whose cats need to be fed “meals” because they devour everything that’s set out for them immediately.

Then again, we have two kids and basically from birth (ok, from weaning) one we need to coax to eat more and the other appears to have a defective float switch that never seems to trigger...

That depends on if they went hungry at some time in their life or not! Something to keep in mind if your adopting a street stray.

That's not the only thing it depends on.

We got 2 cats who were brothers—littermates—from a friend of a friend, who owned the mother and took very good care of all the kittens until they adopted out most of them.

One of the two brothers is obsessed with food, and would cheerfully eat himself up to bowling ball proportions if we let him.

The other would, if permitted, be a very happy "graze when it suits him" cat. Alas, given his brother's propensities, this is not possible.

At least feeding him in a little ball with adjustable holes means he no longer regularly wolfs his food so fast he throws up...