There's no question that Brita filters improve water taste by reducing chlorine/chloramine levels, and they will remove relatively large particulates, but they pale in comparison to proper pressure-driven cartridge filter systems if you start looking at comparisons for other contaminants.
Sure, but for people who are getting perfectly safe water from their municipal water supply, and just want to get rid of the chlorine taste -- that's where pitcher filters work perfectly. You don't need anything else.
It’s still probably not doing anything, chlorine readily evaporates out of water left in a pitcher. It’s a common technique used by indoor growers of certain plants - leave a bucket out for a day.
I can taste the water 5 minutes after it goes through the filter. The chlorine is gone. (Which is not the case if I pour it into a glass.) It has nothing to do with how long it sits around for.
I find it strange you're insisting filters don't work when one can tell from taste that they clearly do. And scientifically, activated carbon absorbs chlorine -- that's not a myth. So everything checks out.
Sure, they work for chlorine, but there are plenty of other issues (arsenic, PFCs, other VOCs, glyphosates, TTHMs, lead for non 'Elite' Brita filters) that Brita filters are woefully inadequate to address.
Actually, NYC is a major concern in terms of water quality because it's very common for buildings to have old plumbing that releases trace heavy metals, and many buildings use rooftop water reservoirs that are a common source of organic contaminants (and occasionally cause building-wide outbreaks of things like legionella).
Similar issues exist in most 'older' US cities. I started becoming worried about my water filter efficacy after moving to downtown DC and learning that a significant portion of the municipal water supply's last mile piping contains lead, and that while the municipal water is safe at the source, water in DC housing is often heavily contaminated by lead and other compounds resulting from the use of extremely aged pipe infrastructure.
It's the total opposite of "practically nothing", it does exactly what I bought it for -- effectiveness 100%.