I've never been on a 10+ hour BE flight where the only choice was chicken or pasta. Seems to me you are cherry-picking the HNL-ATL flight (which isn't really considered a BE flight).
It is a BE flight:
- seating is BE
- you get an amenity kit
- blanket and pillow are BE
- and is you book it as award (good luck, it's practically never available), it is charged at a higher BE vs standard "first class" price
UA and AA both serve much better and more variety (there is more to the world than chicken or pasta) food on HNL to EWR, IAD, IAH and DFW, which are all comparable to DL's HNL-ATL.