I've just done a quick search, and the only articles I'm seeing are reporting on 2 different studies, one about the olfactory bulb and one about brains, nothing about either being disproven.
Just filter your tap water. Then you can drink it from glass containers instead of plastic. I spent about $100/year on filters for my RO unit and it delivers bottled water quality drinking water at home.
Yea, we've got one. But when I lived in an apartment I wasn't allowed to install something like that, i'm gonna guess that most people aren't in a situation where they can use one.
I don't think there pitcher options that are as effective for fluoride or heavy-metals, but I don't actually know off hand
Also if you want to drink something with a taste, always consider adding tap water to it. Most lemonades mix very well with tap water. Furthermore, not everything you drink requires carbonated water to taste good. Sirups that mix with water in a big ratio like 1 portion of sirup and 10 portions of water are nice too.
Carrying home 10kg of drinks every week seems like such a waste, I never understand people who do that.
Of course if tap water is contaminated because of a flood or some other accident it makes sense not to drink it. That said I think in many places tap water is usually cleaner than bottled water (some more so than others). I understand that I can't generalize, but I think everyone who hasn't should at least read up on the water quality of their region, ideally on official or trustworthy sources.
(edit: Note that I wrote the following paragraph without knowing tap water temperatures. Apparently it only holds true if your cold tap water is below 15°C.)
And since I'm already ranting: You don't need ice in your drinks! It doesn't make the drink tastier or more refreshing. It's just a waste of time and especially energy, and also a contamination risk. You also don't need tap water into the fridge. Just let your cold tap water run for a few second and it'll rinse out the stagnant water that warmed up to room temperature, replacing it with fresher, colder water. I guess in some place this might be more viable than in others. Always depends on the local availability of water and energy.
How is it more enjoyable to you? I don't get it. Do you enjoy the temperature or is it an actual taste thing? Letting the tap run makes water so cold for me that I usually wait for a couple minutes before drinking more than a few sips.
Most people i know that prefer bottled water prefer it because of the chlorine taste in their city tap water. Most bottled water goes through several processess including softening or reverse osmosis which can impact the taste quite a bit. They often remineralize the bottled water and add flouride as well. They do make undersink reverse osmosis systems for people who have taste or odor concerns from their tap water, essentially getting a similar quality to bottled out of a tap.
That's not the case everywhere. This is not an individual problem in some countries, it is systemic. That sometimes includes the US. Even Europe has countries with undrinkable tap water.