We must have missed each other on passing trains. My experience was that sprints are not just built in but required. I set up my last project with a catch all “active” sprint that never ends, and a catch-all “later” sprint that also doesn’t end for stuff that’s not being actively worked on or considered.
Hm... Maybe that's what we had at my old job too, then. Perhaps someone had set all that up before the rest of us in the team ever got to see it, so we never noticed.
Has the "Sprint" link always been on the bottom of the rightmost column?