Why are external SDKs implemented as plugins?

Sorry if this is a stupid question but the docs on plugins kinda start on second gear and leave some basic things unexplained.
I have noticed some of the external SDKs in Asset Library are implemented as addons. This is confusing because I though addons add features to the editor (and the docs do describe them that way), while SDKs are utilized at runtime. Can addons be used at runtime? How do SDKs benefit from adding features to the editor?

The asset library does not force every entry to be a plugin. Some of the projects uploaded there aren’t editor plugins only or plugins at all. Plugins can register some stuff to be used at runtime like custom classes (although this is pretty much outdated after class_name was added) or autoloads.

I see. The autoload thing checks out.