No ruined thread here! Very good questions. Sorry, I don't have an absolute answer for you.
Here's what I can tell you: I don't like "hot" as much as I did in my younger days. I still like a "bite" to it, but I no longer enjoy my mouth feeling like it's on fire. But I enjoy this BBQ sauce. Using the hotness scale in the other post, I would probably put this at about a 5...unless you put a LOT of the sauce on, then I would guess a bit of a nose run would occur!
The other issue that I've found is that some of the chipotle peppers in adobe sauce are hotter than others. So, you could make two batches of this, and they may both have a different level of heat.
So, what I tend to do is to put a little less of the chipotle into the blender than the recipe calls for, and blend. Do a taste test. If you want more heat, add a bit more of the chipotle, and if you want a bit more smokey flavor, add a bit more of the adobo sauce....until you get it to your liking.
That's the nice thing about the sauce. Since there's no cooking involved, you can tailor it to your tastes by just adding a little at a time.
Pmillen: sorry, I have not tried it without the salt. You're really not adding that much, so I would believe that it wouldn't be too bad if you omitted it. You could also take the same approach with the salt. Try it with no added salt, and just add a little if you think it needs it.
If you try this, let me know if you like it. As I said, it's a family favorite (especially my oldest daughter and her husband!) and it gets requested frequently.