It seems like an easy, quick win for people who aren't strongly inclined to fully transition to a vegetarian diet. I've replaced ground beef with vegan meat crumbles in all my recipes, and it _just works_. I brown them at a little lower temperature, I pay a little more for the crumbles, and otherwise I can completely replace that portion of my meat consumption with other materials.

Vegetarian patties, mushroom-based recipes, etc can be good and stand up on their own without comparing them to meat, but meat substitutes are good too.