@nazokiyoubinbou @fdroidorg yes, I was referring to linsui's response on the ticket. I don't know what their position within F-Droid is but they and Licaon_Kter are acting as the de facto face of F-Droid in that Gitlab issue. IMO it's worth noting these are the same two who responded flippantly and dismissively in a major controversy about F-Droid marking Bible and Quran apps "NSFW" and hiding them from search a couple months ago, and they are now responding dismissively here. their pattern of behavior does not help build trust in F-Droid.
anyway, my interpretation of what's going on:
1. #Syncthing does not maintain an Android app which most people use, and instead leaves this up to random enthusiasts for better or for worse
2. Catfriend1 was the random enthusiast who maintained the Android app Syncthing-Fork; nel0x is the random enthusiast who maintains the Android app on Google Play
3. A couple weeks ago Catfriend1 seemingly disappeared without a trace and a brand-new entity named researchxxl popped up controlling the Syncthing-Fork Github repo and claiming that Catfriend1 had passed the development torch to them, while providing no evidence that this was true beyond their control of the signing key
4. When people started raising concerns given Syncthing-Fork's direct access to user data, researchxxl got defensive, provided a number of non-answers, locked Github issues, and did not join the Syncthing forum despite repeated requests
5. When people started raising concerns given Syncthing-Fork's direct access to user data, #FDroid contributors were dismissive and stated that waiting for evidence that malicious code had been shipped was their preferred approach
6. Some users as a result have understandably decided that the Syncthing-Fork app on F-Droid can't be trusted
7. Some users as a result may be questioning the judgement of F-Droid contributors