The problem with using hamburger is that is is more expensive than cuts of meat. Added to that is that the meat that's is ground into hamburger has fat added to it.
For the passed few years we've only purchased preformed hamburger patties when there is a fantastic sale or we do without ground meat. For all other dishes that have traditionally been made with ground meat we have used cheap "steak" cuts and shredded the meat into the sauce - spaghetti, chili, whatever.

