What's called sweet tea in the US is overwhelmingly sweet. That was my reaction to it the first time I tried it. It's so sweet, the only way you can get that much sugar in it is if you dissolve that sugar in hot tea.
I'm aware of the existence and superiority of maple syrup. I only use Aunt Jemima in this example because that's what oversweetened tea tastes like to me: shit.
Sweet tea can have as much sugar as soda. You would need to add 10-15 sugar packets to a single glass of iced tea to have the equivalent amount of sugar.
Not true about being able to only dissolve the sugar in hot tea, because if it was, the sugar would fall out once it cooled. You can dissolve the sugar into cold tea, it just takes more effort (so time and mixing) than doing it with hot tea and then cooling it. Cold water can hold approx. 1.7g of sugar per gram of water.
Sweet tea is a drink prepared hot but consumed cold. The cold part is best done via refrigeration. Bringing hot water, tea, and sugar are not going to achieve the same results.
Have you ever had southern sweet tea? The flavor is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. If you want to drink sugar water and brown coloring why not drink a coke?