@ Tyoka It's only on the PFS banned class archetype list :0

And yes there was quite a cafuffle on the forums about it ...

I just played in a PFS game (when the ban was mentioned) with a Synth and he was way crazy tougher then my cleric.

PFS have said that and Prestige will be retained and stats can be redone before changing to a new character class -- that must have been a few months ago now ...

As for your "only hope for an original and compelling character!" remark, I completely disagree I like to think every character I make is an original and compelling character ...

... but this is all off topic from your original question

My remark was sarcasm. =p As someone who hates the word cheese, I begrudgingly admit that I find the factotum to be as cheesy as a class can get. But they're perfectly accepted, where as the innocent polymorpher is demonized just because DMs are too lazy to say no to OP forms. =(

Also, I can see how the Summoner class could be more powerful than a cleric. It's essentially playing two characters at once, that's even stronger than a gestalt character. But the Synthesist takes that feature away. It has some advantages, but for the most part it's only weaker.