Would you rather have flaming hot Jell-O or extra sour?

Gelatin doesn't really have a flavor on it's own though, and I agree that the box-mix stuff is all kind of mid. This is why you make flaming hot and sour jello, instead.

Jello is just kinda… Meh.

Prior to the development of instant gelatin aka Jello, gelatin was extremely labor intensive and thus expensive. It was rich folk food that suddenly had a massive crash in price and difficulty to make. So it was in everything for a while, until it stopped being seen as this super high-class thing that the poors finally had access to.

Imagine the price of caviar suddenly plummeted to $0.01/oz, and what the next couple of years of cooking would look like as a result.