Tough crowd.
Again, I think we're talking about semantics here. Call it a dust extracticator, coarse particle catcher, debris toilet, sawdust sanitizer, whatever. It captures coarse dust, saves on bags no matter what you call it. Feel free to submit your own ideas for what to call it.
Here are some pics of the guts.
The most effective cyclone geometry is a 3:1 height:width ratio, which is why clearvues are so tall and why laguna DCs get such crummy reviews. The design of this will induce a "cyclonic airflow" but it's far more like a baffled trashcan separator than it is a cyclone... i'll predict here + now that a dust deputy will outperform it both from fines collection as well as from minimizing static pressure loss.
not saying it won't be effective, but like you say - semantics. If they're going to use the word Cyclone, we're going to judge it on that basis 
This kind of speculation without firsthand knowledge annoys me. That is how good tools get undeserved bad reputations.
Not everyone has the ceiling height for the tall cyclones. The latest generation of Laguna cyclones get good reviews. I'm very happy with mine.
I am sure the tall cyclones do have better separation than the shorter cyclones, but we are talking small differences that do not matter to the home hobbyist.
The Festool "cyclone" looks like it has an additional disk or plate that may contribute to better separation. The 3hp Laguna dust collectors also have an additional part that some people call the "cross bar" or "restrictor plate". My guess is that these extra parts contribute to evening out the differences between the tall and short cyclones.
Collect as much dust as possible at the source, wear a dust mask and use a whole shop air filter. You will be fine.