Your comment got me curious and so I went to look it up. Apparently we've had granulated sugar for over 2000 years: 1700s CE Europe liked to import it. The process was with sugar cane, but I don't imagine it's be all that difficult for people to think up of a mill for it, when they already have flour mills.
It’s not that I think they lack the skills to make it- rather they lack the need to possess it. Food there is so bad.
I mean 2000 years ago Rome/ancient Greece had fabulous food. Go to a Greek food festival some time. But this world has sh*t food. Why do they even HAVE granular sugar? I just can’t imagine them actually using it.
That's fair LOL. But back in the day; when spices first started to make their way via import, just having them was sort of seen as a luxury item (sugar over salt especially); so I would imagine some people just have it as a status symbol, even if they're not sure how to fully utilize it. --- But other than food; it can be used straight in drinks or teas.
A little surprised that a world where the food culture is so poor it requires saving would have ingredients as complex as granular sugar…