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Been keeping tabs with Northern Syria, so far it seems the SAA is occupying important cities near the border, about 6km or so, by no means in the front line. Furthermore, from current understanding of the situation, it seems these towns are jointly-occupied, but the some news sources (some of them being Russian) claim that the Syrian government has full control over them. Regardless it seems the NES region will be loosing it's ability to govern a few it's major population centers, I.E Raqqa, the largest city within the NES, which is now under government control.

The SAA's presence is symbolic and is meant to dissuade Turkish offensive into these cities, Russian officials have stated that they do not intend for the Turks and Syrian forces to actually engage each other.

Aside from loosing a few major towns near the border, the NES doesn't seem to have been utterly gutted yet, but just remember that they are in no position to demand anything from Damascus; the SDF has stated they are prioritizing the survivable of their people from "ethnic cleansing" and will have to make "painful compromises" with the Regime; they are seemingly willing to forfeit their autonomy, resources, etc. for any assistance.

Though, as of right now, since there hasn't been any information from Damascus or the SDF about the details of the deal and with the amount of information that says contradictory information, I can't say for certain what the Regime intends nor if the NES actually did forfeit complete control over these cities, not just allowing the SAA in. It's hard to tell if the future of autonomy for the NES is bleak or if going to survive, albeit most likely more gutted than before. Information is coming out so slowly it's hard to really understand what is going on properly.

On the bright side, Damascus hasn't seized their oil (yet).