According to the android Documentation
android:userVisible defaults to true and controls whether or not this sync adapter shows up in the Sync Settings screen.
but it shows in the Settings whatever value it gets!
EDIT Nov 03 2014
I removed android:icon android:label android:smallIcon from authenticator.xml
and now it's not showing in the Accounts but there is an empty entry on Add Account tested on Samsung Galaxy S4. And for the record this totally crashed my 2.3.3 emulator when opening Accounts from Settings.
I have implemented my own syncadapter it's working for me as below :
Case 1: When android:userVisible="false"
There is only app icon,Account name and app title
<sync-adapter xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:contentAuthority="com.example.kukssyncadapter"
android:accountType="com.example.kukssyncadapter"
android:supportsUploading="false"
android:allowParallelSyncs="false"
android:userVisible="false"
/>
Case 2: When android:userVisible="true"
There is app icon,Account name and app title with sync control functionality as you can see from image
<sync-adapter xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:contentAuthority="com.example.kukssyncadapter"
android:accountType="com.example.kukssyncadapter"
android:supportsUploading="false"
android:allowParallelSyncs="false"
android:userVisible="true"
/>