Seventh-day Adventist have been eating them for 50 years. First called a "Veggie Burger" or "Garden Burger". Out local health food store run by SDA folks has had them for at least 50 years.
Not everyone is salt-sensitive although on average, many people can consume too much salt, and it will raise their blood pressure.
Regulations on farmers has increased costs and those costs are passed on. And California leads the nation is nonsensical regulation from additives in foods fed to cattle, water usage and cost, "humane" enclosures (as if a chicken cares whether his buddy is 1' away or 3'... chickens are flock animals.) They will die if left alone. Dairy cow mandates over "methane" has cost dairy farms millions. Again, you pay for it ultimately. BTW, all those Prop. 12 regulations apply to any egg or chicken produced anywhere in the USA.