Only problem is, to make a salad taste good most people add in chicken, bacon bits, cheese, egg, mayonnaise, heavy dressings and hey presto, you've got 1000 calories in there.
The "Real Men of Genius" advertising series from the late 90s touched on this very well with their "Mr. Giant Taco Salad Inventor" ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXWq2AVlrsY
It's a funny thing. The more important you think it is, the more important it becomes. If you allow yourself to think, maybe everything doesn't need to taste decadent and delicious, and that maybe a neutral green salad can taste fresh and palatable and that's good enough, you'll find it to become true.
In theory you're not wrong, of course, but in practice "just eat salad instead of a pizza" is so simplified it's not even useful. And I can't even comprehend what's the "damn good compromise" you referred to.
You can eliminate the daily cravings with this change of habits, but you can't change the caveman psychological reaction to eating a pizza. It will always taste much better and yield way more dopamine than a green salad ever will. Much like an ex-smoker and cigarettes.
Unfortunately most people have trouble to convincing themselves that the yellow crayon tasted of bananas when they're forced to scrape wax from their teeth.
I'm not certain what value "just pretend it tastes good" has here. This surely doesnt work long term?
