that would be a sorbet?
Might be? But I've only ever had fruity or flavored sorbets. So maybe I just need to find one that's leaning more on the plain/traditional ice cream flavors like vanilla and chocolate.
The worst offender is when the ice-cream feels "airy". Icy is nice for fruity bases, while not great for creams.
Airy ice cream is also lighter. Beware pints that weigh less than expected. At a minimum, it indicates a ton of air whipped into the mix. But it's also a decent proxy for low-quality ingredients or garbage fillers.
In the grocery store / mass market context, it's hard to do much better than Häagen-Dazs. Just be aware that their "pints" are now only 88% of a pint (this baffles me -- are the ingredients really a meaningful contributor to total COGS?).
The ice-cream was "cheap" I think because it was made in a "failing" country that still had a relatively functioning dairy and manufacturing chain, so they were doing their best to still make icecream whilst dealing with the loss of key ingredients and dwindling margins stemming from the economic situation.