When I first joined this site back in 2002 there was a guy named George from AV Lube (something like that) who was an XOM distributor. When they switched from TriSyn to SuperSyn, it was said (by him) that XOM was trying to get rid of the ester component ($). The thinking was they were going to rely more on oxidation resistance and leave out the high solvency esters. This may or may not be true but it's what he said back in the day.
I've heard some refer to oils like that as dry oils - lacking solvency but relying heavily on oxidation resistance and detergents to keep things clean. I don't know how true or not true this is but I could see that being the case.
Price is usually somewhat indicative of oil performance. Look at all the most expensive oils and they all use ester/AN. Amsoil leaves them out for their XL and OE line, but uses a good slug in the SS.
Maybe that is what separates that real clean looking metal that
@wwillson has shown in his engine pics vs the typical yellow varnish look you often see.