Yes, it has a shelf life. And the specs change, so it may not be compatible with your newest car. But dino oil also has a shelf life, which they say can only be determined by an analysis. I'd run it it older vehicles without worry.
My kids told me a few years ago, They didn't know we were poor, until they left home!
Me: What makes you thing we were poor?
35 year old daughter:We didn't have cable, and we grew our own vegetables!
Me: Ok, lets set the record straight. We were not poor. Poor people don't own their own home, poor people don't send their kids to privet schools, Only poor people can afford to eat all the junk food they want! We just didn't have lots of extra money, so we were broke. But we were never poor!
But dino oil also has a shelf life, which they say can only be determined by an analysis. I'd run it it older vehicles without worry.
I am really dating myself on this, but I remember back in the 50s when many gas stations sold cheap motor oil in glass quart bottles with steel spouts on them - they looked sort of like milk bottles. I seem to remember a quart sold for about a quarter. I heard that it was just filtered used crankcase oil. It probably worked fine for those who had to add a quart or two of oil every time they filled up.
In the late 60’s I worked at a Chevron Oil Co, owned station, for several years. The oil in the glass bottles was refinery fresh oil that shipped to us in 55 gallon drums. We sold it to the customer then refilled the bottles and put then back on the display rack. Nothing second tier about that oil.
Since synthetic oil is an engineered molecule and not naturally occurring, it should be very stable. Take some of the synthetics we use with "environmentally friendly" drilling fluids, the synthetic is made from methane (natural) gas and I've never heard of it getting "stale" or changing characteristics. But for synthetic engine oil, I would image that if anything would degrade over time it would be the additive packages they add to the base oil and not the oil itself.