I think you’re right. I also find it rather strange knowing what type of person he was, he and his sons.
Syria was a shock to me too when I first heard of it and thought about it.
It actually makes perfect sense. For Saddam the Shia, and for Assad the Sunnis, were the group that were an actual risk to him.
So they had every incentive to go easy on groups other than their main threats fir whatever support they could get from them against their main threats.
Unfortunately, this means that when the dictator is overthrown the minority groups he “favored” are seen by the majority as collaborators, whether they in fact were or not.