> As for your point 3: I disagree. I think the news article makes a case that salt and blood pressure have no relationship, which isn't true. It is only true if, almost by definition, your salt / water regulation system is healthy.
It never states the inference directly, although as is common in mainstream media, the title of the piece is stronger than what is then told in the text. I think you may be getting too hung up on the title, and I understand the reason. Mainstream media often over-generalizes scientific findings, more so in the field of nutrition.
In the same vein you have a pet peeve with media behaviour, I have one with M.D. behaviour. One that may paint the overly generalized title in a kinder light:
Doctors often prescribe life-style changes: Eat less, eat better, exercise more, don't smoke, sleep well, sleep regularly, avoid stress. They fail at prioritizing, because they fail at recognizing that patients will never completely change their lifestyle. Willpower is a limited resource, and should be allocated as such.
The prioritization of lifestyle changes is important. If reducing salt intake is competing with reducing BMI, it should be a no-brainer that BMI reduction should come first. It is rarely the case. They are either presented as equally important changes or, since reducing salt intake is easier than shedding 20kg, doctors go for the easy goal.
The prioritization problem should be obvious. The closer to the root of problems you attack, the better the result you'll get. Salt intake is way way down the causal chain to health problems.
As such, blanket stating that you shouldn't care about salt in your diet may be good, if it leads to freeing willpower to do other lifestyle changes.