Technically electrolysis separates water into basically air so it's not simply parts of the water cycle going from seawater, to clouds, to rain, to fresh, to aq

Technically electrolysis separates water into basically air so it's not simply parts of the water cycle going from seawater, to clouds, to rain, to fresh, to aquifer, etc. And I imagine in the wonderful world of industrial chemistry and materials manufacturing that H20 is used in a number of chemical reactions whose result is not returning an identical amount of H20. However I do believe that the vast majority of water is probably returned to the water cycle in some form. I think the big thing here to discuss should be power cost, not water use. How much power did it take to make that t-shirt, including the entire power cost of the water and other materials required. As you say, that power cost will increase dramatically when we're desalinating instead of pumping.