InsuranceTom said:

The RDA is the wrong reference and it is worth understanding why.

I will push back on the powder-first advice. It works and it also trains people out of eating food, and when the drug stops the habits are what remain. Getting protein from meals is slower and holds up better afterwards.

I would rather be corrected than agreed with, if it comes to it.

The figures, for anyone assembling their own picture. If you are comparing against somebody else’s result, check that you are comparing the same measurement taken the same way. Most of the apparent contradictions in these threads dissolve at that step.

That is the short version; the long version is somebody else's post.

MikeFit_NJ said:

I will push back on the powder-first advice.

There is a second half to this that has not been said yet. Order of operations matters more than any single choice here: establish a baseline, change one thing, wait long enough for it to express itself, then measure again under the same conditions.

One thing that is still open after lori_vegas’s answer:

How people are hitting a protein target on a genuinely suppressed appetite, because volume is the binding constraint rather than willingness?

Closing the loop on my own question.

Update: two thirds of the target before midday. Same total, same appetite, and I am hitting it most days now.