I think you are just trying to be that guy. I go to this website, pick what I want, pay and some time later what I ordered gets delivered to my door. What's there to get?
Fast food is pretty bad when it's fresh. It's awful after it's been in transit for 20-30 minutes or more. The idea of spending $10 or more to get a lukewarm burger and mushy limp french fries has no appeal to me.
I think people are ordering from more upscale restaurants, not McDonalds.
Food temperature is a personal preference, some people are really picky about food being hot/fresh, some aren't. I prefer the taste of room temperature food over hot food so "sitting around for 20 minutes" would be a feature for me.
He owns a Mercedes so he probably loves driving. Maybe if he wasn't delivering for UberEats he'd be out joyriding in his new Mercedes without a destination. In doing UberEats he's got a destination and he'll decrease his expenses by like $5/hour and take another car off the road. I know a guy who spends like half his free time driving around in a $70,000 pickup truck because he enjoys it, doesn't have a destination, just goes for a drive for fun.
And some people like really like McDonalds and don't care for the fancy stuff.
It's not for me, but it basically it boils down to "people like different things than me."
I know someone else who can't understand why anyone would ever play video games "its time and effort for zero reward."
Some people enjoy doing work on their car, while others would rather pay someone to do the work for them.
Fast food is usually only palatable hot. By the time it gets delivered it’s cold, no? Also fast food is cheap and the delivery cost is a large percentage of the overall bill. I mean a $10 meal ends up being $20.
Deliveroo costs more because it's providing a delivery service for restaurants that don't normally deliver.
So I'm getting good food. When in a restaurant, things sit in a kitchen for 10 minutes waiting for the rest of your order anyway. 10 minutes in a thermal bag is the same.
Wouldn't that be 10 additional minutes in the thermal bag? If it sits waiting for 10 minutes for the rest of my order wouldn't the time in the thermal bag be in addition to this. Also, in the U.S. delivery in my experience with others doing this is that is takes more than 10 minutes for the driver to pick up the order. Then another 10 - 20 minutes to deliver. To me this ruins the meal. You don't get a nice presentation and the food is way colder than the chef intends.
But at that point you're basically just objecting to all delivery food ever. Which is fine but, like, you are aware that it is a huge industry and has been for decades and people do like it? Convenience trumps artistry (and optimum temperature) for many people a lot of the time.
Deliveroo orders generally get rushed out from my experience sitting in restaurants waiting for my sit-down meal to be served.
"To me this ruins the meal"
shrug, I'm not sure what you're expecting anybody to say. I can't really change your mind on what is hypothetical situation for you. I've ordered plenty, it's generally no worse than the quality I would get in the restaurant (other than the presentation in a bespoke takeaway box not a plate).
Also, what kind of presentation are you expecting for a burger anyway? It's a burger, with some artfully surrounding chips? Ordered to go, it's a burger, with the chips in smaller box instead of surrounding the burger.
In Italy at least, Deliveroo will order from middle and low-end restaurants (pizza places, some sitdowns, any fast food). The drivers are also on bikes generally, which I thought was common for deliveroo but after reading this thread maybe not.