“Perhaps those Manhattanites are finally trying to experience an authentic, natural Judaism as opposed to an artificially rigid and benighted one?”
Perhaps you know more about them than you let on?
The shul being discussed here, for those who don’t know, is an Open Orthodox/Conservadox shul that couches it’s kulos behind the Sphardi mesorah (a real disrespect to real Sphardim). If you want to see REAL cultural appropriation (not a phrase I like using) go there. They claim to be more authentically Sphardi than real Sphardim because they used historical research to reestablish the pre-expulsion mesora, which is obvious nonsense.