let's just say a little bit of both. I ate a lot of tofu and rice plus nutritional yeast, too. My parents had me and then left the commune shortly thereafter (oh shit, we have a kid! we have to move out and get real jobs now!) with no real career experience, so they were raising a kid on 'entry level' state employee wages, which isn't much. (now, state employee retirement pensions, on the other hand? pretty nice. All my younger siblings got as much college as they wanted paid for.)
as far as health goes, TVP, as far as I can tell, is pretty okay. It's one of the few (single source) vegetarian sources of complete protein.
It sounds like you were probably a child of the 70's. It wasn't exactly a decade of plenty, and even with money, good eating often meant overcooked roast or steak and potatoes, or maybe stinky fish. The only garlic available in most places was a near delicacy, two small heads in an open fronted box wrapped in cellophane.
I was born in '80. (I'm weeks from turning 30.) rdl mostly had it, I think. My parents were mostly vegetarian, and they were poor, or at least wise enough to dump every penny they could get into real-estate.
as far as health goes, TVP, as far as I can tell, is pretty okay. It's one of the few (single source) vegetarian sources of complete protein.