I use rice flour for baked goods in addition to potato flour/starch and tapioca flour/starch.
For thickening the starch products work wonderfully but my preference is using pureed vegetables for soups, stews, etc.
I don't actually eat any of my baked goods, yeah I know but they have other outlets, the last round of pineapple orange muffins that I made using only the rice flour were a huge hit and the response was "these are the first gluten-free anything that I haven't wanted to throw at the wall." So they're tasty.
Just depends what you want to use the flours for. I totally agree that these aren't food, I'd rather have steak, potatoes and braised kale, but if you need an option on occasion I think they're great.
If you want to gain gain/maintain weight? Go the route of tuberville :)or if you're not eating tubers for some reason try adding in some winter squashes, carrots, beets, parsnips, bananas, cottage cheese..
