The issue is where you put the various sensors on the front - even with just a camera you’re still going to have a notch (see the Essential phone) until we can use these sensors behind an OLED screen.
Phone manufacturers are going to be shooting for the bezelless design for the foreseeable future so this issue isn’t something that’s going to be isolated to Apple alone.
The alternative is an asymmetrical bezel, which is “less sexy and cool” than the (mostly) edgeless design. Defaulting to this avoids the problem, but you’re no longer hip.
This is another weird case of being in a transitionary period (wireless headphones is another) of functional design. Until the kinks are worked out, we’re just gonna have to deal with the weirdness because it’s not going away.