It's 100% possible to take notes during a meeting without opening up another program.
Takes a whole lot of discipline. Definitely much easier if you care about the subject being discussed.
Do not disturb buttons are great for this.
Most of my meetings are throug video, so having half-screen the video-feed and other half some sort of note-pad is fairly useful :)
Bizarre suggestion for a device that's kinda hard to find nowadays but which I've heard is awesome: the AlphaSmart Dana.
WOW. I totally forgot this thing existed... I had the “3000” one in high school.
I remember it having a fantastic feel to it for being plastic. Other than that though, things like this were about having a system that you could write on without having to worry about battery life. Laptops were more expensive back then (oh man, I finally feel 31).
Currently to take notes in class, I use a 2008 MacBook Pro running Manjaro w/ i3wm. I try to copy the instructors talking points with shorthand.
There is a modern version: https://getfreewrite.com/. It's way too expensive though.
Also whenever someone's on a laptop on a meeting I just assume they're not listening and looking at their emails, doesn't matter what they say before or during. Happens too often. Double if it's a googler lol.