I turned on "Reduce Transparency", and instead of a fade, it turns the top and bottom sections of the screen into blank white space.
My "edge to edge screen" iPhone now resembles the last generation of iPhones with home button from 2017.
My "edge to edge screen" iPhone now resembles the last generation of iPhones with home button from 2017.
It also supports firefox and chrome extensions, so you can use things like UBlock Origin and Privacy Badger.
But doesn't the latest Orion on iOS 26-latest just turn the top section a solid color (e.g., web page background-color), simply not showing any text up there around the notch/top-edge? As the parent said about the accessibility option, "...resembles the last generation of iPhones with home button from 2017" (albeit, at least not solid black/white only)?
Previously on iPhones, IIRC, we got text scrolling up above and around the notch/icons, to really make maximum use of the screen (except where truly unavoidable), IIRC.
AFAICT, Orion and the accessibility setting do stop the fading-distraction, but do not restore the use of that screen space for text/content.
How about they give us back small iPhones with 4" screens then and whoever wants the fade can imagine it outside the physical phone?