Originally Posted by parshisa
Yup, high oxidation due to POA base
It's from esters for sure but not necessarily polyolester (POE), since it could be from diesters, triesters, or some other kind of ester.
I am a bit surprised that the MM was run down almost to zero with such few miles, even with a lot of short trips. Since car-makers have a motivation to advertise less frequent oil changes, I trust that Honda saw bad things happen to the oil during their testing with significantly longer OCIs with many short trips.
I understand why you want to use a less expensive oil if you are going to change oil based on the MM.