I think its a combination of synthetic oils being able to find their way thru smaller gaps and "name brand" gaskets being manufactured overseas......possibly not to the same material standards. Was told recently that Fel Pro was ceasing manufacture of their gaskets for the 500 Cad engines. While I haven't verified this, some of the info was that they were manufactured in Africa and the company there failed. I remember a redneck solution to installing a 9" Ford pumkin on a Friday night before the race on Saturday. Pumpkin stuck in place loosely, then string wound around the studs between the pumpkin and the housing before tightening the nuts. For those who have leaks...the best solution I found was to keep a spray bottle of diesel fuel handy and spray it on the spots generously. They evaporate within a few days usually. Had a guy pull into my concrete driveway with a severely leaking transmission one time. Left a big puddle. Diesel fuel to the rescue....... Works best if applied before it rains on the spots.
In 06 I had an '04 Ford company truck I drove for the summer. We were putting on lots of miles so it got frequent oil changes every 5000 km which was every couple weeks. The one time we were convinced to put synthetic oil in it. I checked the oil in that truck every day and the only time it ever used oil was when it had synthetic in it. We went back to conventional and it did not use a drop between oil changes. That convinced me that if something is fine on conventional oil, Stick with it. There's clearly a difference in how it gets past sealing surfaces compared to conventional oil.
I read that smart race engine builders will lay a bead of some sort of sealer at every seam after it is gasketed up, before the oil goes in. I wish I had made this revelation before I installed my last engine. Lesson learned.
New gaskets are a different type of animal over what we grew up with. I was helping someone build up an LS recently, just looking at the gasket design was eye opening. It looks like they cut off the bad design elements off right at the knees. My OT Chevy Malibu (2012 with 124k miles) got totaled out when parked in June. Full synthetic from day-1. Never a seep or sign of a leak from anywhere. The engine still looked close to new.
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