Converting a sealed MRE to food is actually more hassle than cooking ramen or opening a can/pouch of tuna or microwaving frozen food. The ration heaters are a huge pain if you're in a civilized environment; you don't really want to use them indoors due to H2 gas.
(I only ever ate MREs in transit, and at most for ~10 meals in a row. My preferred strategy was to eat the main antree "cold" (I only got them in 90F+ weather, so they were plenty warm), maybe the candy (if it was the carmels, or I think M&Ms), pocket the little bottle of tabasco for future bloody mary use, and give away or trash the rest. Otherwise, far too much hassle. Given the choice, the tuna pouches from the PX were 10x superior, even if I had to pay for them, especially if I had some packets of mustard and relish and salt and pepper).
MREs are pretty expensive. I saw some boxes of MREs at a commissary on a Navy base a little while back, and the per-unit cost was something staggering like $9 a piece.
