I have to say, as someone who has been on & off WW for years, a leader who singles out the people who come back like that seems pretty insensitive. The
last thing I wanted when I came back after regaining was for someone to draw that much attention to it. Obviously, this leader means well and wants to be encouraging, but I literally
cringed when I read that.
So, I've been in and out of the program a few times over the last 15 years or so. I always lost 30-40 lbs, but would get tired of the meetings, the counting, the journaling, etc. and leave - and the weight would come back. I went back to meetings in 2008 (I think it was my third time) at my highest weight of 230 and got down to 190 before I stopped going - I went back up to 220 by 2011 and that is when I joined WW Online and had great success. I, personally, never found the in-person meetings very motivating - the thing that works about those, for me, are: 1) I am paying to be there and 2) I have to publicly weigh-in and someone else sees my ups & downs. Other than that, I don't get much out of them - so the online tools were perfect for me. Maybe you could just do that for a bit?
I recently gained back a few pounds after going through a year of (unsuccessful) fertility treatments (SIX of them) and after not getting pregnant, had my knee replaced in December - I just needed to get myself in order and decided that I was going to make a push to reach my ultimate goal, and the online tools weren't doing it for me, so I switched back to meetings and it's helping. Again, it's more about having to weigh-in with someone else and knowing that I'm paying so much for this that is keeping me on track more than the meetings, but I continue to go and contribute a little.
Since 2011, when I wasn't using WW tools, I was using MyFitnessPal - which is pretty similar.
So yeah, I've lost weight and maintained using WW and yeah, I felt like somewhat of a failure when I had to go back time after time. But, I'm like you, I like whole foods and don't but the WW packaged meals and snacks, but that's the beauty of the program - you can eat whatever you like, and that's why it's the best program for me. I have never lost a significant amount of weight on any other program/diet/pill/etc. other than on WW.
We actually did a show of hands a couple weeks back when our leader asked how many of us were "repeats" in the program, and about 3/4 of the room raised their hand.
But yeah, I'd ask the leader NOT to make a public spectacle about coming back and maybe even suggest that she/he stop doing it for everyone, that's just plain not encouraging for everyone. Good luck to you!