It’s not rudimentary, it’s a complex system reduced to a few sentences.

1. Vegan patties have been around forever.

2. There aren’t significantly more barriers to entry for food products than other industries.

3. Yes vendors want high prices, but that applies to any product, not only vegan products.

The answer is, as everyone else has pointed out, economies of scale. There’s a larger market with more participants producing more beef burgers than there are vegan patties.