> and there’s no way to have that without the notch.

There is, the notch could instead be a black bar that extends across the width of the screen. whether that's a better decision is arguable, but it's definitely possible.

I wouldn't have been so annoyed if it was actually treated as the engineering concession that it is. From a user experience POV, the obvious thing to do with an OLED screen would have been to make the notch the same height as the status bar, and have the status bar white-on-black.

Instead, they chose to rub the user's face in it as a marketing ploy.