As far as I can tell, those packets of raw sugar have the same calories as refined sugar, with 1/10th the ability to sweeten. So if you wish to sweeten your coffee, for example, you end up consuming about 5x the sugar, than if your stupid coffee shop just offered regular damn white sugar. Why? Why does this stuff exist? Who prefers it?
My first thought was that maybe the Sugar in the Raw packets have less product in them, since turbinado sugar is more expensive than white sugar, but a quick googling tells me that Sugar in the Raw packets are 5 grams and standard sugar packets are in the 2.3- 3 gram range. So if you use a comparable number of packets out of habit, you really are doubling your sugar intake.
So I think it must just be a solubility thing, as suggested below. The big crystals do end up sunk to the bottom of a cold drink undissolved. If it’s a hot drink… 🤷♀️
It’s just sugar with a teensy bit of the natural brown color from unrefined molasses left in it. I don’t find your observation that it takes 5 or 10 times as much of it to sweeten something to be true for me whatsoever, it’s almost exactly the same, and leaves me wondering if perhaps you also find that today’s low-flow toilets need to be flushed dozens of times to work, or that you turn on modern showers and just a tiny trickle comes out :)