I'm totally with you OP. I bet a lot of places just buy it premade. I don't know why store bought stuff is made so much differently (worse IMO). Of course though on ATOT, you suck if you eat American Chinese food, and if you must eat that shit sauce, it better be fucking homemade.
I currently have some Lachoy brand that hopefully is better than the last I had.
Lately though, I've been getting the General Tso's combo instead of Sweet and Power Chicken combo, so I haven't tried out the Lachoy sauce. I started buying it for places that were so schiesty with the sauce provided for your Sweet and Power chicken things but my current favorite is very generous.
Damn, I want a combo now. Too bad they are closed.