> Just getting the water boiling, adding the macaroni, cooking it, and draining it is going to take at least 15.
Really depends on the heat output of your burner (for the get it boiling part); most elbow macaroni is, IIRC, 7-10 minutes cook time, draining takes seconds, and most of the sauce can be done while the noodles are cooking. 20 minutes total is perfectly reasonable.
OTOH, where the box saves you is in how busy you are, since it doesn't take multitasking, and cleanup, since it's one-pot, while sauce and noodles in parallel takes two.
Really depends on the heat output of your burner (for the get it boiling part); most elbow macaroni is, IIRC, 7-10 minutes cook time, draining takes seconds, and most of the sauce can be done while the noodles are cooking. 20 minutes total is perfectly reasonable.
OTOH, where the box saves you is in how busy you are, since it doesn't take multitasking, and cleanup, since it's one-pot, while sauce and noodles in parallel takes two.