The "good" mac and cheese recipes are carried by 1) quality cheese 2) slight crunch 3) slight textures added by the noddles. That's it, it's still a bad concept. I'd rather invest the cheese into a recipe that's more multidimensional. Already you could be making a dish like lemon zest pasta (al limone), using many of the same ingredients, but lifting the whole thing from the mud. Pasta alla zingara is amazing too.
Americans have no understanding of subtle flavour. All you know is salt, fat and sugar. But that's not your fault, papa England couldn't teach you what papa England doesn't even understand himself.