[zachalexander]

>there are many brands already in existence.

Yes, and this may work for some, but I think you're missing a few points.

Soylent is largely about taking control of your nutrition. Making your own soylent gives you complete control, like some of the more hardcore versions of Linux perhaps. Buying Rob's premade mix is like installing Ubuntu – it's lazy, but at least it's open source (or will be soon). Making your own from someone else's recipe (like mine) is perhaps somewhere inbetween.

By contrast, buying Ensure is like buying literal Unix (if you can even do that anymore). I mean, it's similar to using Linux, but... who does that?