Preferred syntax is whatever looks nicer to you. It's not really two different syntaxes, just one more flexible syntax where if you choose to go full braceless, it ends up looking like python. I personally like the new braceless python-like syntax.

Scala has two main camps, one is purist FP (cats / zio / etc.), another is plain Scala, banking on ergonomic OOP+FP fusion. Neither of those is the default. FP advocates are more vocal online but that's because they need a bunch of libraries (thus more OSS work) to make that approach work, whereas the other camp just uses plain Scala and simpler libraries that aren't reinvented every 5 years, so their online presence is not as apparent.