The discrepancies in reported sodium storage mechanisms reveal the characterization challenges posed by a multiplicity of HC microstructures. It is generally accepted that sodium adsorbs at defect sites during the slope region and fills the pores (clustering) during the plateau region. Yet, significant questions persist regarding the precise sequence for sodium adsorption in surface defect sites or intralayer defect sites, during what capacity region sodium intercalates, the cluster size dependence on pore size distribution, and whether storage processes occur in sequence or simultaneously as a function of potential. Experimental insight into these questions requires structural and chemical probes with sensitivity to the local structure. Recently, Stratford et al. used operando X-ray total scattering and Na NMR to study both the local and average structure dynamics of the HC upon sodiation. During the slope region, they show that sodium ions adsorb at a wide range of defect sites. During the plateau region, they conclude that sodium ions fill the pores and form metallic sodium clusters, consistent with our recent operando SAXS and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements. However, they did not observe changes in the graphene interlayer structure due to sodium intercalation, typically observed from the scattering peak that arises from the interlayer spacing which may have been obscured due to strong scattering from the electrolyte. Furthermore, they observed that differences in the average pore sizes of the two commercial hard carbons studied resulted in no significant difference in average sodium cluster size.