I'd like a manual "sync now" option. Sometimes I put stuff in google drive using windows explorer and it's not immediately obvious if it is syncing, why it is or isn't, or what I need to do to make it.
I've got a theory that progress bars for main functionality tasks and the associated manual triggers in modern software are out of favor, as it creates a stage for an error to be displayed and creates expectations the customer can lean on. Less detail in errors displayed to the customer removes their ability to identify a software problem as unique or shared among others.
I think you're right and I think I insufficiently considered malice as the reason for a lot of this type of minimalism. This "SWW" message is great as it doesn't even give a hint as to whether the problem is with the server (all vendor's fault), the network (not vendor's fault), or a client fault (maybe vendor's fault, maybe customer just needs to update it). Users can just do brute force things like "Swipe up the app and open it up again" and eventually just give up.
Syncing should be in the control of users. user should be able to trigger or abort the sync. Also it should provide some sort of indicator of progress.
