why has the Notes sync persisted for over 2 years now?

it's now the morning after I made that post yesterday. before I saw your message come in just now, I proved my own theory: I see that the desktop version of notes isnt sunk to what i put on notes on my iphone yesterday evening. So I went to my iphone just now and went to notes. and once I did that, those notes showed up in the desktop version of notes. But heres the issue. When I was out walking to a restaurant yesterday adding new text to "notes" in my iphone, that should have sync'd with the desktop version of notes almost instantly but it didnt. And now its HOURS later and pulling up my notes again on the iphone makes it sync now that I'm in proximity to my desktop computer? when I open up icloud after what I just described, it shows the notes of what I just updated on my desktop level.

Well lets go test PART of that theory. I'm gonna go add new text to my Notes app on my iphone as I sit in front of my desktop computer at home. (I've hit "quit" on notes on the desktop level on purpose to help with this experiment). I went to my iphone just now and typed in "Testing 123" at the very top of this document in "notes" app. then I pressed "done". Then I slid the application upwards on the iphone to make it 'force quit' (and hopefully force sync to the cloud). Ok now lets go back to the desktop computer and open Notes....And "testing123" is now at the top of my Notes doc on the desktop level. So that kind of supports your theory about it not connecting when its not on the network. now lets try another test of that variation. lets leave the notes app open the entire time on the desktop level and come over to the iphone and type in "test2" in the notes app and click "done" but we wont force quit out of the notes app on the iphone. Yep I see "test2" on the notes app on the desktop level now.

in yesterdays instance, I was out in a parking lot making the note. theres no wifi out there. but disappointing that when I come home and it reconnects to the network, that its not thinking to sync with the desktop version of notes.

the tests I did somewhat support your theory about it not syncing when its not on my network. But when i got home last night and it hit the network why did it not sync all night long?

i went to my iphone 15 pro just now and went to settings -> notes, and i dont see those options at all.

I went there just now and every single app has background refresh already turned on.