> It is undeniable that notifications became an inescapable part of our overly techy lives in the past decade.

Eh, I dunno. They make sense on a phone, which fundamentally is for contacting a person. The device is all about tasks which are not kicked off by a user. On a computer, though? What, is there some expectation that my computer will start doing things of its own volition? No notification handler is a perfectly good answer.