I read an article recently that discussed lipoic acid/lipoate.

Let me see if I can find it again.....

nope, but I did find this:

Top 1 List of Foods High In Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA)

So this link illustrates how tiny the amounts of ALA are in most foods. This is why lipoic acid needs that transporter. Even when using small supplement amounts of milligrams it becomes a rather change to "drug" status of lipoic acid. The article I read a while back called the use of lipoic acid a therapeutic drug use and not a vitamin supplement use. So evolution did not occur with high lipoic acid consumption as we see today, with its use for diabetic neuropathy. Lipoic acid is made by our own body's metabolism.

Also the addition of iodide to the task of the MVtransporter explains the hypothyroid risk of using high dose lipoic acid since the transporter carries iodides (also in microgram quantities);
Iodides were not on the list in the past. And I expect other microgram quantities of nutrients to perhaps be found to need a transporter in the future.

When searching this topic try these 3 keywords...
1) lipoic acid
2) thiotic acid (often found in research articles)
3) lipoate

All are found in many papers.