Eating meat is considered [...] as an evolutionary trait
Correct. But these early humans had no supermarkets or global trade systems. We (and our food selection process) has very little to do with the constraints that these previous generations had. Your argument basically boils down to "it is natural for us to eat meat. This is called "appeal to nature" and is a logical fallacy (i.e. not a very good argument).
cattle industries have gone too far
Kudos to you for acknowledging that.
meat is still one of the easiest ways to give yourself the nutrients required
I do not agree, as meat is lacking in some of the essential nutrients or has a suboptimal composition of them. But even if it was the best source, that would not necessarily justify everything we do (i.e. harm other sentient beings) to get it. To give you an (over the top) counter example: Human meat would even be much better in terms of it's nutrient composition - but no one would argue for canibalism because of that fact.
It was not the first time I got that response. I genuinely don't know where people get this from?!
Totally! It might be the first time a person gets to think about the matter in a deeper way. It is normal for them to be all over the place.
I think my answer at that time was something along the lines of:
I normally think of my discussion partners as intelligent people that are able to reason. I won't let them off the hook easily, but there is no reason to "fight" with them as this will improve exactly nothing.