You're right that the FDA definition of mayonnaise requires egg. This comes from depression-era laws where people were passing fraudulent products off as the real thing. I think those laws still matter, but kind of miss the point here.
As a different way to look at it, imagine a sort of food Turing Test. If it looks like the thing, it behaves like the thing in every meaningful way, and its taste is indistinguishable from the thing, is it not the thing? Maybe, maybe not, but I think it's an interesting question worth exploring.
You're right that the FDA definition of mayonnaise requires egg. This comes from depression-era laws where people were passing fraudulent products off as the real thing. I think those laws still matter, but kind of miss the point here.
As a different way to look at it, imagine a sort of food Turing Test. If it looks like the thing, it behaves like the thing in every meaningful way, and its taste is indistinguishable from the thing, is it not the thing? Maybe, maybe not, but I think it's an interesting question worth exploring.