What is a "modern" Spotlight importer

I noticed that mdimport has gained a few new options that refer to "modern importers":
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 -e            Print all the modern importers available
 -m            Import files using modern importers. Specify the file type via -y and then the file url(s) via -u (separated by space) 
 -y type       Type of the file. Requires -m
 -u urls       URLs for the files. Requires -m


mdimport -e replies with:

Code Block
Extensions: id(501) 


I can't figure out what "modern importers" are.