It's sync for Reddit, something we've used for almost a decade. But it's for Lemmy.
For us, that means a developer we can talk to, who talks to us and listens, who is talented, performant and responsive, and an app that embodies all of the above while configurable and fast.
Imagine your most used app and social media that you have used for so long is taken away overnight. And the developer left his job to work on sync. He lost his job again because of Reddit.
We all got sync and Reddit taken away; now we have it back, and we are pleased about it, and it feels good to toss a token to someone to literally give them their dream job back again.
Also, your comments of ad-supported apps as misleading sponsors is a mischaracterization, even though ads and all associated parts are utterly disabled if you pay 20 bucks to remove them for life. You don't get to have a fast, cheap, and good app; you can only pick 2. For me, good and fast is just fine. For you, stick with connect.
Most people came to Lemmy because of third-party Reddit apps getting destroyed, don't be surprised about the hype.