I agree that making the same volume of food is probably cheaper if you're processing vegan only ingredients - but if you look at the amount of nutrients / $, vegan substitutes are nowhere close to meat

That's honestly highly unlikely.

These animals consume the same products the vegan alternatives are made with... for months or years, depending on the animal.

It might be true in places without massive animal farms, but that's usually connected to more human attention which would make it even more unlikely.

> These animals consume the same products the vegan alternatives are made with...

How many people are living off of grass?

I guess you've no idea how modern animal farms feed their animals. Hint: the quantity of animals is way too high for them to be fed with grass, it's usually a special feed, which is composed of corn, often fish bones and other substances.

That animals convert grass and plants in general to meat is undeniable. But I think the issue is, livestock is generally fed with human grown plants, which could be fed directly to humans and save a lot of energy (food and water) wasted in the process, because the amount of calories, for example, that you take off meat is nowhere near the calories contained in the food the animal consumed during its lifetime. Now, regarding if nutrients are missing from a plants only diet, that's another matter.