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why would including evaporation make any difference to the water usage counts?

The water used, whether evaporated or returned into soil (which includes rivers) is unusable any more. Unless the runoff is collected and reused again, which is a form of recycling, and should also not count towards usage of water.

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Aquifers maybe? Well water. The issues related to things like the California's central valley subsidence. Not sure data centers are at that scale though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Valley_land_subsidence

Indeed. If you evaporate all the water before it soaks into the ground, you end up with a desert

Soil water being unusable is certainly a take. I mean, my drinking straw can't access it, but every damn thing I eat can.

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