But of what use are they? It saves you like a dozen or so pixels when apps aren't in full screen, and they don't do anything in full screen mode. Wouldn't hiding the menu bar save the same amount of pixels without the notch?

I personally find notches to be very distracting visually, and I just don't like them from a design standpoint.

I think Apple recognizes this even. Looking at their marketing material. You have to scroll pretty far down to ever be shown the notch, as it seems they're intentionally hiding it with apps in full screen mode.

The notch is awful. But the prices are worse. I really wanted to buy something today but those two factors are very off-putting.