[nilkn]

In addition to what others have said, the transparency of Rosa Labs (the makers of Soylent) is a big deal. Now that they have a manufacturing plant and so on, maybe things will change for the worse in the future, but up to this point they've been very open about their goal to produce a cheap, liquid, easy meal replacement, and they've openly supported the DIY community as well. They've also been adamant from the beginning that it's a process of continual improvement, and that's why Soylent is versioned, almost as if it were open source software.

You could file this all under marketing and not be technically wrong, but it makes a real difference in the experience as a consumer.