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> I’ve never used an android phone so I’m curious… isn’t the categorization of such notifications totally up to the developer

Yes, but any popular app will have implemented it.

> If I’m an app developer I could just lie and say all my marketing trash notifications are actually time sensitive/important so that you’ll still receive them

In those cases, your users would come to distrust your app. I reckon, only a negligible percentage of 3b Android users ever turn any notification off. More likely that some have learnt to ignore them altogether (banner blindness); swipe left to dismiss those isn't exactly as hostile as cookie banners are. Or, worse uninstall your "misbehaving" app (some are annoyed by notifications).

It is up to the developers, and most of them play ball from what I've seen. What I can tell you from a user perspective is that if they don't categorize their notifications properly, I will at the very least block all their notifications, or uninstall and look for an alternative app if possible. Maybe a developer can weigh in on the incentives this behavior creates, in terms of lost engagement or userbase

It's up to app developers, and some of them indeed just straight up lie with their categorization. Moovit and all dating apps come to mind. They implemented _some_ categories, but none useful – nothing that lets you separate wheat from the chaff