What's the "barefoot running take" on Sawe's sub-2hr marathon?
I've always tried to be "barefoot forward", preferring to be barefoot inside and outside when possible, and wearing thin soled shoes like Vivo or Merrell Vapor Glove otherwise. The historical evolution story resonated with me, and have never had any issues or pain walking and hiking this way.
But I'm starting to get into running now, and I'm not as sure about that. I've noticed more foot, ankle, and calf pain after my runs than I'm accustomed to, and do in fact feel better when wearing some "normal" Asics running shoes.
I've seen the argument that barefoot running is also better for you and the real time ground feedback helps improve your form, but what are the caveats or asterisks around that? Does it only apply when running on grass? Only short or long distances? When not running for speed? Optimizing for health? Etc
Basically, I can't help but notice that we recently saw a marathon miracle with two runners finishing under 2 hours, both wearing very, very cushioned Adidas shoes. Is the argument that they could have gone even faster if they were barefoot? I think this is the truest example of "merit" based running with enormous sums of money being invested in the shoe development. If Adidas thinks they could win with a high tech minimal shoe, I have to think they'd try.
So what gives? Under what conditions is barefoot or minimal running best? What is it optimizing for, if not speed?
edit: Thanks everyone for the excellent comments! It's too overwhelming to respond to all of them, but I've read every one.