No matter how well Hamburger Helper is done, it still sucks. I lived off that shit for 2 years when I was in school. I can't even look at a box of it on the shelf now.
My take on Hamburger Helper was always instead of buying the HH just buy some buns or even a loaf of bread and eat hamburgers. Hamburgers don't need help
I ate a ton of manwhich too. We eat a lot of burgers around here, but we don't eat them with bread. Just fix'em up minus the bread, usually with some steak sauce and chow.
Tacos are a good use for burger meat too. And I like to sometimes use the meat mixture on a bun sort of like a Sloppy Jose