I'm not vegan, and I agree. I'm the cook in my household, and a dozen eggs feels like it lasts forever. In my experience, they're largely optional outside of baking, which is admittedly probably only because I haven't experimented enough with applesauce/auquafaba/flax/etc. to get consistent results. Sure, some recipes like carbonara or shakshuka need eggs, but by optional I mean you can plan to make something else where they're less essential.

The funny thing is I've only noticed dramatic price increases with shittier quality eggs. My local co-op's prices have held steady throughout the bird flu pandemic, and they sell fairly local cage free dozens for like half the price of the big chain grocery's store brand.

I get that many folks relied on eggs as a cheap protein source that's quick and easy to prepare. I hope people that have poor food security are able to pivot to other cheap proteins like lentils and beans. There's a little learning curve, and they're not as quick, but they're not hard to dress up with aromatics and stock to make a tasty source of protein and fiber.