A hypothetical situation, put together by reading altogether too much James Tiptree Jr. Go check him out.

It's 2200, and the sixth extinction has come to pass, along with a substantial loss in technology. Humanity is now subsisting on ocean-grown algae concoctions. Caivar, mint ice cream, the cheeseburger; such delicacies no longer exist, and cannot be acquired ever again, through natural means or artificial. The technology does not now exist for growing meat, or reengineering cows.

However, limited virtual reality -does- exist, a holdover from the Fall; and within it are programmed all these delights, tasteable through the scent and flavour depositors of the VR suits. But it is limited; everything within it is a mere shadow of reality, including the hamburger, which although accurate to taste within VR limits (as it was programmed by somebody who knew its delights) is actually less pleasant than most of the algae, and doesn't come close to the real thing.

So my question is this. Given that all who experience the VR hamburger will know that there is a real hamburger out there that they can never taste, would it be better never to try the hamburger at all? A minor experience would be lost, but the eternal dissatisfaction would not occur.

Furthermore, would it be morally correct to never reveal that this VR hamburger exists at all, if it would only seem to inflict a misery upon the population?

I may edit details of this scenario as they are picked at, in case I didn't state things properly.