I never understood this, at least from a functional point of view. From an aesthetic point of view I completely disagree, but that does not mean either of us are wrong, just that we like different things. Functionally you actually gain screen space because you offload the status bar from the proper screen into the notched area. I know many get into a fit when they see elements of the screen proper in that notched area, but if you look at the dev guidelines they prohibit anything important from living there, so basically all you might get is the background extended there. Even with videos you can just tap and instantly get a true rectangle.
On one hand I think we could have all avoided this if phone makers just made the left/right areas around the notch blacked out in software all the time. But then again the status bar isn't always blacked out and I think that would have made things worse. What we are facing here is simply a physical dilemma of where to put the front sensors/cameras, and in reality there is no other place unless we want them on the bottom, or to pop up somehow.
