i'm confused to how this is different to waking up to the sunrise that is also (almost) at the same time every day?

I don't know where you live but even at my latitude it most definitely is not "at almost the same time every day."

If I woke up with the sunrise in winter I'd be waking up 2 hours later than in the summer (3, really, because of daylight saving time).

The time doesn't change by a lot every day, sure, but that's not relevant to things like transportation or work schedules.

yeah i just meant like it's mostly the same time between days, but shifts heavily seasonally. I suppose one season might be worse for you than another based on your internal circadian clock