I think I've seen food advertised as "fresh, previously frozen" but yeah it sounds like a contradiction. Maybe I'm mistaken and it's not labeled as fresh at the counter, it's just thawed and not packaged, so I assumed it was sold "fresh".

About the frozen tilapia, I thought maybe it tasted better because the fish has so little fish flavor so the taste of the sauce and veggies stands out more. With the fish I used, the fish flavor dominated for the worse.