With the notch, status space is at a premium and they finally get rid of that completely unnecessary advertising for AT&T, etc. (shows up on lock screen, that’s it). Also, when I’m in the background and using Google Maps for directions or something, it’s actually easier to have the location button in the top-left corner because I don’t hit it by accident.
I really don’t notice the notch after a month or so but I also set a wallpaper with a black top (thanks to the OLED, that part of the screen is so dark that it really does hide the notch completely).
One thing that’s really stupid is web pages. So many of them have floating bars at the top and buttons at the bottom; then there’s browser UI, and then the notch has the illusion that it’s taking up even more space (when in a way it’s not). In the end each site feels like it’s crapping all over my screen space on the X. Mobile browsing needs to be seriously redesigned from the ground up; anything less than a full screen experience needs to go.