It's not just convenience alone. Plastic over soil reduces the use of water and energy. Plastic in packing and shipping even in-season local produce extends its life and reduces waste, can help keep things sanitary/safer longer.

We use plastic not just because it's cheap (even though it is), but also because it's really easy to form impermeable barriers for water/moisture, air, contaminants, microbes (both wanted and unwanted). We can debate whether those uses are worth the ecological or even health cost, but we have to acknowledge that refusing to use plastic also carries a cost, too.

After seeing this happen with so many other things, it's hard to think of the corporation as a hapless victim of chance.

Oh no, they knew plastics were bad news. They invented recycling to shift the conversation to consumers and now our entire planet is blanketed with it.

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled