I love to cook and bake, though I have the luxury of doing it when I want to. (My wife usually does most of it). I can make a batch of bread dough for three baguettes in under three minutes. Letting it rise takes no time, though it does require some foresight. Baking is only a few extra minutes of additional effort. I think I calculated that one baguette costs me about $0.17 of ingredients, almost all going toward flour, which I buy in bulk. It's also delicious - frankly, much better than anything I've bought anywhere else except for the boulangeries in France.
I learned to bake bread as a child in my mother's kitchen, equipped with all these amenities. I made some fantastic bread.
I tried it again as a young adult in a small apartment with no dishwasher, a tiny sink, mixing the bread entirely by hand, kneading it on the one corner of a counter not occupied by the microwave, then hand-washing the mixing bowl in a sink with a non-spray faucet while the dough rose before baking it in a cheap oven from 1992.
My apartment was not shitty. Many American adults are currently raising their children in equivalent apartments... more bedrooms, no significant kitchen space, no tools.
A kitchenaid mixer is 1/4 of a month's rent for most.
"Three baguettes in under three minutes" ignores every externality involved in the process.
[0] http://www.dingostick.com/2017/10/recipe-french-bread.html
I'm the main mealmaker in my family. I generally like cooking, but I get tired of doing it every day. Processed stuff like Rice-A-Roni or Kraft Mac & Cheese, or frozen pizza takes single minutes of my time and only the most minimal effort and will generally be eaten without complaint.
As for cost, these items are pretty cheap averaging $1 or $2 per meal for three people. Maybe add some meat for another $2. That said, ISTR that Americans pay proportionally less of their income for food than anywhere else in the world, so food, processed or not is fairly inexpensive.
Yeah, I know there are other cheap, fast meals I can make starting from raw ingredients: I'm a fairly good cook. However, as I mentioned above, sometimes I simply don't feel like it.