Yes

Same thing

You have to get a good connect. You'll find them where you least expect. I used to buy tamales from the place that refilled my propane tanks.

Mexican here, tamal (without e) is a class of foods, think of it like cake or pie, maybe not quite as varied, but definitely not a single thing, there are good tamales and bad tamales.

depends on the tamale, what you describe sounds like canned or 'fast' food tamales.

There is a guy who shows up with a cooler full of piping hot tamales about once a week down the street. He puts up a little folding table, a crappy little chair and it's cash only. $1 for the best fucking tamale ever made by man. It's hard to make sure to get there before he sells out. It's usually within an hour.

Done right, it's an amazing, flavorful filling with a relatively thin shell of special ground and leavened corn flour around the outside. Most of the bad ones i've had were 90% rubbery unseasoned masa with a thin stripe of meat down the center (cheap). I've been practicing for ages and i'm only up to "not bad" on a scale of 1 to 10 :)

Mexican food at a lot of chain places is made as cheap as possible, and while cheap tacos are still fucking delicious, it doesn't translate well into every dish.

If you ever see an old Mexican on the side of the road in California selling Tamales that's how you get them.

This is a nightmare

Tbf, nachos is a newish dish created specifically for americans, so that wouldn't be my test for the quality of a mexican restaurant