I don't know if you remember but last year i posted seeing Mobil 1 0w40 on German shelves with "Full Synthetic" on the label again.
The thoughts at the time were it was probably NOS, now i don't know. If most of the remaining % is ester and add pack then it certainly legally qualifies as full synthetic.
A great oil in any case but not as good as the German Castrol 0w40 when it was formulated with VISOM which brings up another point.
Notice the German produced Castrol 0w40 pour point -60f and includes titanium. This sounds like the top of the line product sold as edge in Germany and is very expensive.
Could it be that when Castrol lost out to Shell on the OEM contract they didn't want to slow production of their full synthetic plant and just diverted it to the US market?
I might be wrong but IIRC the plant that produces Castrol synthetics is near Ingolstadt and had a lot of investment put in that plant less than 10 years ago.
It only makes sense Mobil would go back to synthetic for the 0w40, they were the only major lube producer in Germany without a full synthetic labeled flagship product.
They played the German consumer for stupid with their SHC labeling but the German consumer is no fool, they caught onto this wording game in no time.
They might not be oil savvy but they do know the best oils have Full Synthetic or Voll Synthese on the label, if it doesn't its nothing more than dino or a dino blend.