When I launch Yatse, it starts a refresh from my library, but I can’t tell that it started, or when it ends without clicking on the three lines in the top left corner…when there I see the rotating arrows indicating an update is occurring…it would be nice if the same animation was displayed on the main page so that I didn’t need to open that panel to see when it starts and when it’s done
There’s also a notification and you can open the menu by swiping no need to click on top 
So sorry but this is not really a necessary change, if you want to force a sync you can always swipe down. All the rest is automatic and should not impact your actions.
hmmm…this is likely a problem with my Tablet regarding the notification…on my Galaxy Tab A, if I swipe down to show the notification bar, I can see the notification that the background sync is in place, but without pulling that area down, I don’t see any notifications…so I didn’t know that it was there…I have confirmed on my Samsung phone that when I launch I get the notification that I can see…so I agree that as long a I can see that background sync notification, that it’s sufficient…now to hunt down why my TabA isn’t showing it to me