Ugh, that's the worst! I totally get what @ward.fiona means about kitchen letdowns because my air fryer is basically a fancy reheater. For frozen stuff, I've had okay luck with the store brand "pub style" nuggets, but you're right, the breading is never as good as homemade.

Universal solutions usually end up creating more specialized problems.

That idea about dumping it after an hour... I always thought that was a waste. My old view was that coffee is coffee, just reheat it. But seeing a timer on the counter actually changed my mind. It forces a real choice instead of just ignoring the old pot. Now the coffee is always fresh, and nobody has to drink the burnt stuff. It turns out dumping a little coffee saves a lot of bad moods.