I also grew up with a madpakke (I'm in Denmark) and also hated it. Was pretty jealous of Swedish kids since I knew they got a hot school lunch and didn't have to eat boring, open-faced sandwiches and room temperature milk. I guess Norwegians have it just as bad as Danish kids.
I spent 17 years in Denmark, and now a couple years in Norway, and I can say that the Danish lunch culture is far richer than the Norwegian one. I studied at a Danish gymnasium and university. I now work at a Norwegian university.
For starters, Norwegians do not employ rye bread.
Furthermore, Norwegian open-faced sandwiches have not evolved into full-blown smørrebrød - where stacking multiple ingredients is such essential part, that you cannot eat the common smørrebrød without cutlery.
At my university, we would lunch in groups, building such works of art during lunch-time from shared packs of ingredients.
It may be that Danish school children get a "boring" lunch, similar to the Norwegian one. However, as Danes grow up, their lunches evolve in tastes and complexity. It seems less so in Norway, and that's OK, but a tiny bit boring :-P
