You can make a lot and then freeze most things without much degradation of quality and then beep beep, ping the servings.

In my experience most of the time it’s because nobody ever taught them. They grew up with shitty parents that made them think rice and beans are only for yucky brown people.

You know, I keep wondering this, because it genuinely is a similar amount of work. It's just putting two dry and one wet thing in a pot. It takes me maybe 3 minutes. You don't even have to do the 'bring to a boil, then turn the heat down' bit the other person described. Just turn on medium heat and leave it be. I'd probably take longer reading the package instructions and following them correctly on something ready made.

That said, I've gotten ready made meals for lunch when my work only had a microwave and no real kitchen.