The point of IF is not weight loss. It's all the things in the study you link, notably metabolic flexibility (glucose/ketone) and autophagy.

I did IF for many years, not realizing that it was a thing; I just knew that I was faster in the water if I hadn't eaten yet that day. I suspect that some of that was from the increased O2 / energy balance that comes from using ketones over glycolysis, but, really WTH knows?