I posted earlier saying that I liked the kids menu because I know that I can get a cheap meal that she likes at a restaurant. I didn't put it in the original post because I didn't think it was required, but the fact that she likes mac and cheese doesn't mean she doesn't like other food or is picky, picky. She eats sushi and mexican and italian and curry and lots of fruit and veggies etc.. because that's what we eat. We went for a 2 hour 12 dish dinner of reasonably authentic Chinese food and she cheerfully ate 11/12 dishes and tried the 12th. But she would have been as happy with mac and cheese.
We're not this fortunate (yet) but I like having crappy kids menu food as an option.
In part because I'm not keen on dropping $15 on food for my child to not eat (I'm annoyed enough at the $4 mac n cheese she didn't eat

) and in part because food is a battle zone in our house (and because of under-weight and nutrition issues, one where "she'll eat if she's hungry enough" isn't an option our pediatrician supports)--I can fight the battle to keep my child quiet and well behaved and eating/tolerating/ignoring familiar food, but if we add ONE more battle to that--like the one of trying to get her to eat something that's unfamiliar or whatever, that's setting us up for failure.
I'll be thrilled to order my kid something that isn't nuggets or mac n cheese from the kid's menu someday, but for today, I'm thrilled that "do you want nuggets or mac n cheese" is a viable option.