Milk literally has more sodium.
As you said ... it's not much, you won't even notice it. So the reason it's there is to increase consumption (to keep you thirsty and to tolerate more sugar) and addiction.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/soda-addiction
Because soda contains several potentially habit-forming substances like caffeine, sodium, and sugar or artificial sweeteners, it’s easier to become dependent on soda than you might think
Because it makes the final product taste better. You can reframe that to mean something nefarious (ie. "it's there is to increase [...] addiction"), but fundamentally it's not any different than you adding salt when you're cooking.
>it's not much, you won't even notice it
>Because soda contains several potentially habit-forming substances like [...] sodium
Let me get this straight. You're claiming that "you won't even notice it" yet it's also "habit-forming"? What's the mechanism by which drinking 0.2g of salt per 20oz bottle gets you addicted?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24829986/
A Classic Innate Behavior, Sodium Appetite, Is Driven by Hypothalamic Gene-Regulatory Programs Previously Linked to Addiction and Reward
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29673924/
Food additives, food and the concept of 'food addiction': Is stimulation of the brain reward circuit by food sufficient to trigger addiction?
I don't doubt that salty foods in general are delicious and make people want to eat more. I'm doubting whether the effect applies specifically for coke, which only has 0.2g it per 20oz bottle. What you're doing is like looking at a car crash and concluding that it's caused by alcohol because the driver ate some bread[1] before driving.
[1] https://www.scienceabc.com/pure-sciences/does-your-bread-con...
I'm not pretending I'm the expert.
> What you're doing
I'm cited the source.
> it's caused by alcohol because the driver ate some bread
Don't tell our politicians ... we have 0% limit.
A source that fails to list what the dosage is, and I highly suspect isn't in the range of 0.2g/20oz.
>Don't tell our politicians ... we have 0% limit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_alcohol_content#0%
>It is illegal to have any measurable alcohol in the blood while driving in these countries. Most jurisdictions have a tolerance slightly higher than zero to account for false positives and naturally occurring alcohol in the body.
https://laborrights.org/in-the-news/2005-list-14-worst-corpo...
Not any more than the bakery down the street is "doing nefarious stuff" by adding salt to their bread.
Coca Cola (etc.) has 2.37-3.10pH, and the acidity is from phosphoric acid.
https://www.foodchamps.org/is-coca-cola-acidic/
"Due to their high sugar and acid content, over-consumption of these drinks is bad for your health and can aggravate symptoms of acid reflux."
"It can also cause bones and tooth enamel to erode, creating the perfect conditions for the development of cavities."
Obviously they don't put it in to destroy your teeth, and despite what the other replier said, it _does_ matter why, which is _why_ they went through the effort of wrongly attributing why it's done
p.s., phosphoric acid is delicious, that's why people like products with it in it. Back in the days of soda fountains, they'd add it in! Now it's mixed into cocktails, sometimes with various other acids (citric, tartaric, etc)