Actual thought I had in the shower!
Gelatin was originally and still often is derived from meat by-products, so wouldn’t it make more sense as a meat dish?
I looked it up, and it turns out that accounts of aspic (a savory gelatin dish) predate the earliest record of gelatin desserts by more than half a millennium!
Maybe the mid-20th-century meat Jell-O trend makes more sense than I thought
I don’t think you can get pure gelatin from animal sources without losing the meat flavour. Gelatin from animal sources is made by a process involving hydrolyzation, which breaks down the muscle proteins into pepides. The proteins in meat are the main reason for its identifiable flavour. The broken down peptides in gelatin don’t taste like anything. If the gelatin still tasted like meat it would indicate that the gelatin extraction process was incomplete.
Even if it was possible to do some kind of half-assed gelatin extraction process that preserved some of the animal flavour, there’s no market for that. People who buy gelatin expect it to be flavourless, so they can use it in their recipes without the gelatin affecting the taste. Gelatin is used to provide a thick and, well, gelatinous texture. If someone’s making a recipe involving gelatin that’s supposed to taste meaty, they’re gonna use their own animal products (i.e. meat and/or meat-based stock).
To OPs point, it’s easier to have an inefficient reaction than an efficient one. Just surprised why some shrewd person hasn’t marketed it better.
Make your nasty market. Hmmm imagine gravy jelly and how annoying it would be. Though it makes more sense to use those popping pearls you find in boba shops. Yummy? Would you like to be customer number 2?
(Edit: nvm, apparently Italy exists and all are avid consumers. The children (and thus adults) yearn for the wiggle)
Hold on. What’s the most thick one can make gravy jelly? Gravy jelly babies!