[sammyg2]

One of my main responsibilities for many years in the refining biddness was improving the reliability of rotating equipment. Pumps, turbines, compressor, blowers, motors, gearboxes.
We ran shell synthetic oil in almost all of them.

Partly because I didn't care about the cost of the oil.
Partly because most of the equipment with ball bearings was on a mist-only lubrication system.
Partly because the equipment with a sump got oil changes once a year.
Partly because the typical pump ran 24/7 for 6-1/2 years between overhaul on average.
And partly because the average overhaul cost of a pump was $14k. with some costing half a mil.

Synthetic oil is better.
Is it better enough to justify the extra cost in a car engine?
Probably not if I'm changing the oil twice a year it isn't IMO, but it certainly won't hurt anything except maybe your bank account.
But if I changed the oil every 12k miles, then synthetic would make perfect sense.