Many pastors trained by the Synodical Conference seminaries have joined the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox, or various sects honored by Fuller Seminary.
Babtist leaders appeal to Lutherans because they often teach some form of the Gospel. UOJ is not the Gopsel - it is anti-Gospel. Each segment of the Synodical Conference spends its energy on saying things against each other - such as, "They are wrong on church and ministry," or "They do not have any doctrinal discipline."
It is clear that they have doctrinal discipline. The Ice Curtain descends on anyone who dissents from their one dogma - Holy Mother Synod is infallible.
The Gospel is justification by faith, but that message infuriates the ELCA side and the Synodical Conference side, since both segments oppose and attack faith in Christ. They have different ways of spreading the same gangrene as pure doctrine, but it has the same origin (Halle University) and the same outcome.
I remember Norm Berg mocking WELS evangelism as "We are against the Lodge, we are against Scouts, we are against ....Now join our congregation." That is a good satire of Pietism, but the solution was no better, and probably worse. "I just wanted to stop by your house and say you are already forgiven. Yes, you were saved 2000 years ago."
UOJ worship is a nightmare - the Means of Grace show people they are already forgiven and saved. They might as well join an organization that is honest about turning the Sacraments into ordinances. And they do.
Nevertheless, some pastors have taken the name Lutheran seriously and studied Luther. They actually imagine their synods are confessional, so they study the Book of Concord. Gausewitz' catechism was produced for the entire Synodical Conference and has no hints of UOJ in it. Therefore, that training left many who still believed in the Gospel.
