You said you owned a Condo in Canada? Did you live in that Condo? If so then you should be ok!? The rules say you can´t live outside while applying for sponsorship, they don´t say you can´t stay or travel outside of canada. From my view you just stayed outside of canada for a period of time but you never gave up your home and adress in canada. The wording would be different if you couldn´t spend time outside canada.
Look, of course there's an argument that
can be made (by analogy to tax residency) - but your argument has the same problem as the OP's lawyer, to wit -
so what? How
exactly are you going to make that argument, with what specific actions?
And if IRCC officer decides differently and delays or refuses your file, how
exactly are you going to action some kind of remedial measure to fix it?
And if you have to use some appeals process, how much is that going to cost in time and money? Is that realistic? Is that the best course of action? (Should a lawyer suggest their client take this risk without informing them?)
Let's compare this to what a
good lawyer who actually knows the process would have said: it seems IRCC is actually quite strict about interpreting "residing in Canada to sponsor"
at minimum when submitting a sponsorship application. And as a result, if you submit a sponsorship application (as a PR) from abroad, you run a serious risk of having your file delayed and not knowing how to find out what the issue is and with no practical means of appeal (that wouldn't take much longer).
And that
therefore (as a competent lawyer who knows immigration) the proper advice would be that submitting early from abroad is a false economy and quite likely will cause far more problems.*
And yes, it might be objectionable in a couple different ways during a pandemic when flights were blocked from some countries, but it still doesn't make it a good idea.
*I can understand an applicant making this mistake on their own. Not obvious. But for a lawyer to do that is a different matter.