Not my field by any means, but I think it's primarily to avoid adhesives that are difficult to handle during recycling.

Turning the paper molecules into simple sugars and using thosr as an adhesive is presumably beneficial because the sugars would easily dissolve in the water when the paper is recycled. Most other industrial adhesives as I understand it are hydrophobic, so aren't as easily removed.

I had the same thought, but there are two differences: the amount of these compounds (presumably low) and how they behave in recycling compared to current adhesives. Maybe they wash out, maybe they can accumulate to a large degree without making the recycled paper worse.

The article doesn't tell, unfortunately. Worst case, a cool technical article is the only thing the technology is good for...

Not if the produced adhesive is free of hydrocarbons, which it is.

Without the cost of an adhesive, and instead a really cool laser.

I mean you're eliminating an entire consumable supply chain though. Being able to have your packaging inputs be _just_ paper is a huge advantage.