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Considering that we are talking about cooking from recipes, I' assume that "cooked" means "palatable" - or at least, an attempt as such.

It still might be dry or bland, mind you, but more than the minimum needed to make it safe to eat.

Well, if we're getting into semantics we could maybe say cooked vs prepared, I'm not sure. There's obvious physical differences between burnt onions and caramelized onions. Similarly, there's obvious physical differences between scorched, dry, but safe to eat chicken, and chicken that has been prepared properly and is tender and juicy. In the context of this thread, we've been talking about cooking things as part of recipes, so the end result and quality is obviously important.

I want cooked to be something I want to eat. I don't eat at McDonalds, while the food is safe to eat, it is also gross.