Could part of this be the rise of non-American restaurants? If I'm eating say, thai I don't "order vegan" - but a tofu based curry may be vegan. Vegan food, done well, is pretty great. But there's a steep learning curve with the spices etc, so I tend to eat out for it.
Agreed - it took a good number of weeks of our weekly meal prep before I felt comfortable adding actual flavor to the dishes. It definitely is something you acquire quickly, though. Meat and dairy are good flavor-enhancers so becoming vegan overnight was rough from the flavor profile perspective.
Luckily there are plenty of resources to help out and I got a handle of it in no time. You learn what to swap out and how to get the right texture with things like tempeh, tofu etc and all that.