Why did you drink them before, if you appear to fundamentally object to the idea?
You must have always known humans were apex predators, and that was the only non-sweetener reason you listed.
Meat contains essential fats to various degrees while protein powder does not at all. Usually, protein powder ([1] as an example) is not exactly matched to the human profile of amino acids [2], that means extraneous amino acids will be converted to glucose and stored as fat.
[1] https://explosivewhey.com/blogs/fitness-nutrition/what-is-wh...
[2] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11291443/
Notice that ratio between leucine and methionine is 3/1 in consumption profile and is much higher in the whey protein profile. This leucine most probably will be wasted.
Whey protein most probably would bound muscle protein synthesis by methionine available, and make substantial (I think 40%) amount of calories from leucine in it to be converted to glucose. Two 33g servings of whey protein can be converted to 1g of fat, just from leucine alone.
I'm afraid you're going to unlearn it, as humans are below big felines in the food chain.
It doesn't mean the diets of humans are biologically supposed to consist of huge amounts of meat.
Most apex predators are of course obligate carnivores. But humans are probably near the top because the use of weapons and tools makes us highly dangerous, so most land animals are wary of humans. Even many predators don't prey on humans for food.
(Although some large land predators do, mostly when they're desperate for food.)