No surprises here. Just like the lockdown on iPhone screen and part replacements, Macbooks suffer from the same Apple’s anti-repair and anti-consumer bullshit. Battery glued, ssd soldered in and can’t even swap parts with other official parts. 6000$ laptop and you don’t even own it.
Unfortunately, the Synaptic FP reader in yours might unironically be an anomaly, as the one in my L470 was supported even during Ubuntu 16.04 era. It may be possible that since the *80 generation of ThinkPads, the E and L series closed the gap on mediocrity, unlike the T/X/P series. Lenovo does maintain though a Linux compatibility chart for ThinkPads.