What drives "over-eating"?

Perhaps to some degree it is a lack of will power. You ultimately choose whether or not to eat something you know is bad for you.

But, particular combinations/alterations of food like products definitely have the deck stacked against you

Hyper-palatability (HP) is a direct attack on your brain's reward system. If eating something stays continually exciting, you can keep eating.

Eating different flavors and textures keep a meal feeling novel and increases consumption.

Example: Adam Richman orders fries to add some crunch and saltiness to help him finish this Ice Cream challenge
Taste enough of anything for long enough, and it will lose its novelty, and you lose interest in eating.

Just add new flavors and textures = HP

The danger of processed food is that it is made to be as rewarding as possible.

This is why it is so easy to eat a bag of potato chips (Fat, Salt, Crunchiness), but I would challenge anyone to eat the same calorie equivalent of plain baked potatoes before getting palate fatigue.

Vanishing Calorie Density (VCD), will factor just how "filling" a food is, which includes effect on appetite hormones, stretch receptors in the stomach, etc.

The more VCD, the less tangible presence that food has in your stomach https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/vanishing-caloric-density.htm

VCD is pretty awful at making a person feel the need to stop eating

Processed foods with Flour/Sugar/Oils offer no useful satiety response.

Soda, chips, and snacks given to children may as well be classified as kid drugs https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all

Combine HP (Addictive) with VCD (Don't feel full) and you get a recipe for over-eating.

If you know the game is rigged, you shouldn't play.
Limit and avoid as much as you can.

Stick to , no HP no VCD = far better appetite and self regulation
#JERF