Is Gatorade Actually Beneficial?

Sports drinks seem like a common choice among athletes. I especially see football players drinking Gatorade like it’s water. My question posed for today is; Is Gatorade really necessary or worth it?
     I have formed my own personal opinion over time on Gatorade and other various sports drinks. I personally think Gatorade is a waste. It’s extremely high in sugar, carbs and salt. I’d rather save my macros for something better like frozen yogurt or bowl of cereal. I’ve read in several different places that you should never drink your calories, and I couldn’t agree more. I do understand that the point of sports drinks are to replenish electrolytes lost during INTENSE exercise. Most of the people I have seen drinking Gatorade haven’t even broken a sweat (with the exception of football players) My health teacher in middle school let us bring drinks and a snack sometimes. She always had a rule that you weren’t allowed to bring in Gatorade unless you have just come from gym class. She had a valid point. If you aren’t excessively sweating or have been exercising for more than 60-90 minutes, it really isn’t necessary at all. Allow me to explain.
As I mentioned above, Gatorade has a lot of sugar, carbs and salt. SMALL amounts of sugar after an intense workout has been shown in numerous studies to be beneficial if done right. (i.e. the whole “drinking chocolate milk after a workout is actually healthy” thing) but if you aren’t at loss for electrolytes, which means you are consuming excess sugar and excess carbs and EXCESS sodium. If you drank 2 20 ounce bottles Gatorade’s in one sitting while you were not sweating or in need of replenishing electrolytes, that’s 68 carbs, 68 grams of sugar, 540mg of sodium and 260 excess calories. Your body will most likely only store a small percentage of that in your muscles as glycogen to be used for later. But what happens to the rest? It’s stored as fat.
Also, I feel that the sodium content of Gatorade is too highly proportioned to the potassium content in one 20 ounce bottle.  According to the USDA, the average American requires 3,500mg of potassium per day and only 2,500mg (maximum) of sodium. Potassium is important for many reasons and if you don’t get enough, it could result in minor complications. If you consume too much sodium and not enough potassium, a lot can happen on a cellular level. Sodium will be absorbed by water in the cells which causes fluid retention. When you eat something salty, you often get thirsty and drink lots of water. This is now diluting your levels of potassium even more which makes things harder for your body. There are many ways to add potassium to your diet without drinking it in Gatorade and adding to the sodium levels. So just to wrap things up, Gatorade is not only a waste of macronutrients, but it also can hinder your levels of sodium and potassium if you incorrectly consume it. Not saying that I’d never drink another Gatorade in my life, I’m just saying water is always my first choice but Gatorade on special occasions. (539)