Yeah - it's kind of a pain if you're just doing a few fries. BUT - on your point about the frozen fries, many of them are good, but they're much better if you deep fry them rather than baking. Think of it as the classic double-fry method -- they're basically given a light fry and then frozen in most cases. So they get nice and crispy when you re-fry rather than bake. You can do it in a shallow pan as long as you keep them in a single layer. And a splatter guard will help control the mess.

Try frying the frozen ones in shallow oil and see what you think. You'll use less oil, but may have to do a couple batches. Same for frozen tater tots but you will need deeper oil.

On the other hand, I had McDonald's fries just yesterday and they're still delicious too .