The notch came in for a lot of criticism (still does) but soon became a de facto standard feature across all sorts of devices despite the initial protestations.
Similar criticism has been levied at the iPhone 11 Pro's triple camera setup. Apple could have tried to make it more aesthetically pleasing but decided to draw attention to it through design. The company is saying "we've made a technological advance and we're damn well going to make sure you know about it!"
@colinwalker ?