If I ask for jalapeños somewhere, I should never get those disgusting pickled rings of bland mush.
If you were to tell someone to go buy a cucumber, and they come back with a pickle, you’d rightfully be irritated. If the salad said it had cucumbers and you end up with pickle slices, you’d be revolted. If you said you wanted cabbage on the sandwich, and they put sauerkraut underneath your aioli, you’d be rightfully pissed.
And if I pick the jalapeño add-in option on a website, write it down on the grocery list, or god forbid see it as part of the description of a food, I shouldn’t get the half-rotted, piss-soaked, completely-devoid-of-spicy-except-for-the-acid-of-the-pickling-juice excuse for a pepper slice that some asshole out there decided was a decent way to sell his old peppers.
We don’t call pickles (gherkins, whatever) cucumbers. We don’t call sauerkraut cabbage.
Pickled jalapeños are good, but I agree, if I say I am putting jalapeños on my sandwich I don’t mean the pickled ones.
But spicy? Just start with spicy peppers and you will get spicy pickled jalapeños. I grew a variety called Jalafuego and they were good for cooking but I made some fermented jalapeños en escabeche and it’s almost inedibly spicy, I have to eat it in small amount or use it as an ingredient in something.
Speaking of fermented - that might heal your relationship with pickled jalapeños. Look up how to ferment them in brine. Not vinegar. Preferably with carrot, onion, and garlic . Much more complex flavor.
That’s the way I knew them from childhood. Still bland, still disgusting. The loss of the actual jalapeño’s substance is huge, even if you add in other flavors with it to make it complex. I, with few exceptions, don’t like pickled foods. I also avoid the overpowering condiments. I like to taste the actual foods, not throw something on top that becomes all I can taste.