Some type transformations in <type_traits> can also be expressed using core language syntax (e.g. std::add_const<T>::type is/seems equivalent to const T). Dtto for std::add_lvalue_reference, and perhaps others. What is the use for these type traits?

I fully understand the standard would be providing an "incomplete toolbox" without them, and I can imagine use in a meta way, something like this:

template<typename In, template <typename> class Modifier>
struct Apply {
  typedef typename Modifier<T>::type Out;
};

Apply<int, std::add_const>

Are there any other use cases for these traits which can be expressed syntactically, or are they just included "out of a sense of completeness" and for the occasional meta-use?

Those traits come from Boost and the proposal to add them to the standard, N1345, quotes Andrei Alexandrescu as saying:

"I understand the symmetry argument for adding add_const, add_volatile, add_cv, and add_pointer, however I would argue in favor of eliminating them. The language-provided equivalents are just simpler and nicer."

The same proposal also gives this rationale:

Author's Note: superficially the add_const, add_volatile and add_cv classes are irrelevant, since, for example, add_const::type is the same as T const, for all T (currently this does not apply to function types - but issue 295 addresses this). However the experience from boost is that several users have asked for these templates to be present in the library for the following reasons: (a) Some users find these more explicit - when combining transformation templates in particular, users like the kind of "built in documentation" that these templates provide. (b) Not all users are aware that cv-qualifying a reference is allowed and has no effect, or that cv-qualifying a type that is already cv-qualified is allowed and has no effect. (c) Compilers may emit warnings when cv-qualifying a type that is a reference, or already has a cv-qualifier, these templates can be implemented such that these messages are suppressed in these cases.

Also, for add_reference (renamed to add_lvalue_reference in the standard):

Author's Note: the add_reference template was one of the original motivations behind the boost type traits library. However the resolution to issue 106 makes the template appear largely redundant. In spite of that add_reference may well be useful in suppressing compiler warnings when inadvertently creating references to references in template code.