You should try it! I forget where I saw the idea originally, but my ex was very into Halloween, so we made it.
I normally don’t like meatloaf, but the different shape and the crunchy cheese gave it a texture I enjoyed better, so IMO it’s even better in hand form then it is as normal meatloaf!
I mostly agree with you about the looking bad and not tasting good, but I have made the “Meat Hand” before and that was just as good as normal food if you like meatloaf. Just make your recipe of choice but form into a hand shape, top it with a little cheese before baking, and cook on a sheet pan, then transfer into mashed taters. Looks great/horrifying, hard to mess up, and tastes like regular food. Plus ketchup makes “blood.”. Options fingernails are just onion slivers and the wrist is the onion core/center part.
Pic below isn’t mine, but mine came out looking just as good.
Once he started doing collabs with Josh Weissman, I think that took it from a bit into something serious. After that, I started seeing a bunch of YouTube cooking channels start using it.
I prefer using things with high glutamate content instead of straight MSG, but I do keep a jar on hand for when food is lacking that something.