I'm really torn on this. We're a 2 family iPhone house and I've been an iPhone user since the very first one came out, and in fact we're a massive Apple house so fully immersed the Apple ecosystem.
My personal experience is that I've always hated the way notifications have clogged up my lockscreen in previous iOS iterations, showing them all as individual items in a list view, and I know someone mentioned this above, but I honestly also had the same issue with notifications on the lock screen that were unread but if I unlocked my phone and then locked again those notifications would vanish completely. I can 100% say that was the case for me as it created a few arguements when I was "accused" of ignoring text messages I can tell you.
So, the new iOS16 notifications I 100% prefer. I like that they're tucked away discretely at the bottom of the screen. I personally don't find it an issue at all swiping up from the bottom to see them.
However, the missus on the other hand is the polar opposite. She doesn't like change so this is something new and absolutely doesn't like it. She, like many on this thread want the "old way" back. She doesn't like that she unlocks her phone when trying to scroll through notifications and doesn't like the list view as she still has to swipe up from the bottom.
It's horses for courses, but given Apple shipped around 240 Million iphones in 2021 alone, I don't think the comments on this thread will force them into a fundemental change to their OS.
It's a case of it's new, there's a change curve everyone goes through to accept change and everyone accepts change at different speeds, so accept that it's her to stay and figure out a way to live with it. But I also absolutely understand people are all different and have different user experiences and are allowed an opinion.