McDonald's has long forgotten what is supposed to be. Cheap, low quality food. Now it is expensive, low quality food. Like you said...you can get a better burger at a restaurant for the same price if not lower. Longhorn Steakhouse has a burger lunch special for $9.99
Just before COVID they had started to do a bit of a rebrand. They drove the prices up a little they had a decent chicken sandwich that was made of chicken breast. They brought in better buns the burgers were still s*** but the quality was a lot higher and the price was moderately higher. After COVID hit they scrapped all the fancy stuff for the menu and kept the high prices then inflation hit and they doubled those high prices.
I had Five Guys for the first time ever last year and I was surprised by how good their burger was. The prices were a little shocking, but the food was not bad.
In Canada, A&W has cheaper prices for WAY better quality food. It was a few years back we were enjoying some "as a treat" and realized it was not just significantly better than McD's, but also much cheaper, and we decided we just weren't going back.
My household is partial to a couple of chicken buddy burgers in a time crunch.