That does not excuse us from mistreatment, but that is a separate aveira of tsar baalei chayim, which may or may not be biblical.

however, it dervies from the real halakah that an animal can’t be sick when it is slaughtered. inspection of the lungs is nowhere near an adequate health examination for the cows. people get hung up on this “glatt” thing when the real concern we need to look out for is whether the animal was sick or not, and how the animal was treated before it was slaughtered. it is only with the permission of hashem that we have the ability to slaughter animals and eat meat, and we need to respect the life that we are taking as a blessing from hashem.

this is another example of how the charedi community has really gone off on these rabbit paths from the things that really matter.

Glatt literally means “smooth.” One of the simanim of treifa is lesions on the lungs, but it is not always clear whether a blemish is a “treifa legion,” or a healed wound, or something else. Glatt-smooth lungs have no question about interpretation. A lung that has a blemish that must be interpreted is not glatt, and is subject to error by the examiner, or possibly an error in halacha (i.e., what situations are pemritted and not is a subject of debate among the early acharonim).

Certain animals must be glatt in order to be kosher at all. Certain animals do not have to be glatt, but glatt could be considered a hiddur mitzvah or a chumrah for such animals.

So mrketing-wise, you may be right, glatt became “the thing to do” in optional cases. But you don’t know what you are talking about in halacha, where some animals MUST be glatt, if you don’t want to eat (literal) treif.