I always look forward to the food on an international, no matter how meagre it is, it's just part of the experience to me. And an airline would simply absorb any $5 in food saving anyhow, so everyone would be worse off.
But yeah, if the flight's 3 hours, you've checked into the airport 2 hours before that's 5 hours, and then allow more time for getting there, that's a long time without food.