Can I start using the receive address for monero straight away without syncing Exodus as its asking me to do, I can see it's generated an XMR address for me to use without going thru sync. I want to avoid large download which is why I want to bypass sync if possible of Exodus.
Read this reddit reply from official Exodus staff, which may explain it better:
Hey there! For most assets, Exodus is a "lite wallet" that doesn't need to download the full blockchain. However, XMR is an exception. It doesn't need to download the whole blockchain in order for you to send/receive XMR, it needs to download the blockchain to know what your balance is.
However, the whole blockchain only needs to be downloaded if your wallet has transactions dating back to the early days of XMR. Since this isn't necessary for most users, you can download a smaller part of the blockchain. We have a guide to doing so
here.
So if you just downloaded exodus, never sync before it's ok to generate a receive address and start using it? And after receiving the funds the blockchain ledgers will know I have conducted a transaction even though I never sync before?
Yes, it's ok to generate an address and start using it. The Monero Blockchain ledger will know about the transaction after the transaction has been confirmed by the miners, but your wallet will not know about the transaction until it is synced with the blockchain.
The latest blockchain/broadcast transactions are helpful in what situations?
To see the correct wallet balance and to be able to use the received coins.