I am an iPhone user who refuses to upgrade from my 7+ until this silly notch business is removed. It does not "disappear completely and immediately", especially when viewing landscape mode video content.

Sorry, I was not specific enough. It's a "silly notch" to people who don't use an iPhone with the notch. If you never upgrade, it will remain a silly notch to you forever, while those who do upgrade find that it disappears completely and immediately, as I said.

If you want to watch landscape video, a double tap switches between notched and non-notched views, so you can choose if you care. Most people don't after day one.

I echo this comment and really the notch has not been an issue for me in 2 years of usage I never notice it. I like faceid over touchid as well

Very rarely does any important visual information become hidden when video playback is covered by the notch.

It does "disappear completely and immediately" for people who have the phone with the notch.

When watching landscape video content it literally disappears completely as it goes black (and on an OLED that really means black)

I do not own a phone with a notch, but I’m under the impression that most video content is not wide enough for the notch to cut into the video. I think you have the option of zooming in a bit to remove black bars on edges; with the drawback that corner pixels and the notch area are lost. Same as any other non-16:9 phone