You just pointed out why they make chevrolets and fords. Everybody is different.

You are right about the plate side's usefulness. I interlock the two for eating purposes and that works great for me. The frying pan side has always been useful to me & which the plate side holds one cooked item out of the dirt while I'm cooking one or two other items.
A big plus for this mess kit is that it's very easy to clean.

The Trangia has some mean grooving in it's construction that can make cleaning it a real chore at times (ie: scrambled eggs). Of course, the bale makes cooking over a campfire easier and it's more versatile being a deep pot. The lid (plate) is very small when it's time to dig in and achieve some serious calorie replacement.

The canteen cups are easy to clean but very limiting in the amount of food that one can cook at a time.

I did finally identify and order canteen cup lids from RothCo (no affiliation) but found that those lids only fit RothCo made canteen cups, properly. I do carry a lid in my dayhiking & backpacking kits to keep bugs and trash out while I'm cooking something on a fire.