I was a vegetarian years ago and vegan for a while. It doesn't really taste like meat, a little but it's very different.
If you are an ethical vegan then you are anti animals dying for you to eat, having something that tastes like it is by the by to me as you aren't actually eating an animal so it is different.
I guess for people who have switched to being vegetarian it means they can eat similar kinds of meals just without the meat in them, veggie sauces, burgers, mince etc... also useful if you are attending things like BBQs as you can take your own veggie stuff.
A lot of veggie meals can take a lot of preparation and, generally, it's good to have some quick solutions handy to bulk out a meal. You don't find such a large range of veggie (and especially vegan) products about like you would for non-veggies and it can be a faff to go to different food stores to get stuff, probably more generally available nowadays though.
I only tended to use the bacon bits for flavouring though not many as they tended to be quite strong. Could never stomach tofu either, horrible stuff.