There's some nuance here. The compiler flags SQLITE_DEFAULT_SYNCHRONOUS and SQLITE_DEFAULT_WAL_SYNCHRONOUS are set to FULL by default, which does fsync on each commit.
https://sqlite.org/compile.html
But there is a thing called NORMAL mode which, in WAL and non-WAL mode, does not fsync on each commit. In WAL mode, at least this doesn't cause corruption, but it can still lose data.
https://www.sqlite.org/pragma.html#pragma_synchronous is very explicit that the thing called NORMAL does have these risks. But it's still called NORMAL, and I'd think that's something of a foot-slingshot for newcomers, if not a full-fledged footgun.
FULL can also lose data if you lose power or crash before the fsync. This is just a simple trade of losing slightly more data (possibly) in return for better performance.
Fsync is relatively expensive. Recovery price is not going to differ much between the two settings.
It's like 1 in 1000 loss for 999 in 1000 gain. Makes perfect sense to me.