The saltiness of people's sweat varies quite a lot, so you may just not lose a lot of sodium that would otherwise need to be replaced via electrolytes.

Same, though it definitely increases the amount of water you can carry internally and steadies the rate at which water leaves your system. Both can be useful in situations where you need to “camel” water more often.

Also beginner athletes’ ability to maintain electrolyte homeostasis can be erratic, leading to a “better safe than sorry” policy, and of course salt is the easiest way to make new athletes hydrate until they learn to self regulate. That’s all I can think of.

I sweat like crazy and if I need to be running for more than an hour I'm going to want something to drink. But if I'm running an ultra (or doing a very long hike, or bike packing) having variety in fuel sources is really good for your mental health.

A friend of mine hardly has to fuel during ultramarathons and I am very jealous.

Also shout out to trader Joe's for selling olives in little pouches. Also great for long days.

Edit: for those scientific people out there, salt isn't the only thing that helps you hydrate, sugar also helps bring those salts and water into your system. So when I make my own sports drink I use the WHO recipe for Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS). Which is really salty, but as stated above, I am a very sweaty boi.

Sugar also is fuel for running longer, so I don't see why not.