Oh my fucking God…they are like shitty Cheeto soup
If you make it as-is then yeah, I'm sure it's pretty mediocre, but similar to ramen, if you use some simple food hacks, then this stuff is friggin' delicious. Here's some tips:
First of all if it's soupy, then you've added WAY too much water. It's not supposed to be like that.
Second, it's generally a bad idea to microwave or pour boiling water in to mixes like this because: 1) the stuff usually doesn't cook very well, and 2) whatever's in the container will usually leech in to the food. This probably isn't too bad for this Cheeto's stuff (cup is made with cardboard and maybe plastic / wax coating), but is dreadful for the instant ramen mixes, which usually use styrofoam.
So, it's best to start with some veggies in a pot before adding the ingredients. Stuff like onions, thinly-sliced cabbage, maybe a tomato make a huge difference. Since you're already likely a spice-head if you're trying this out, add some extra red pepper flakes and maybe some curry powder, too. After that all cooks for a while, THEN add the noodles. Could throw an egg in there, too.
Cook until noodles are soft, drain any excess water if necessary, then stir in the flavoring and some extra grated parm or similar.
What you get is a deliciously spicy alt to mac & cheese which features thinner, tastier noodles and all kind of extra flavors. Perfect cold weather snack IMO.
Not true.
As with loaded ramen, it takes very little effort to make this kind of meal.
Yeah, it might seem complicated for a first-timer, but if you simply experiment a couple times, you'll hit on a personalised, tasty hot snack that you can pretty much make in your sleep.
That's meaningless without an example, and just dodges the point of what I'm saying.
A "real meal" could be almost anything. Last night for example I was in the mood for french fries. So I spiralised a large potato, soaked it in two cold water baths (IYKYK), pressed, drained, brushed with oil, then spent about three 10min intervals air-frying and carefully turning & separating, repeat. Finally seasoning them and enjoying them.
Guess how much more effort that took than doing the loaded mac & cheese?