Minor terminology quibble: I think of the aluminum frame around the display as the "bezel", and the inactive areas of the screen as the "borders".
To your point: If Apple had left the top border at 1/4", the whiners would be whining that it was too thick, and did not match the side borders.
"The screen is not centered! The borders are uneven! It hurts my eyes! Where's Jony Ive when we need him?"
So, if Apple caves to the whiners, the 2022 version loses the notch, and we get nice symmetrical 1/4" borders all around the display area. But then the whiners are back:
"Look at all the wasted space! Why couldn't they make the display larger? Even if they needed some area for the camera and ambient sensors, they could have used the areas on either side for something. Maybe status readouts? Menus? Then we could make the desktop larger!"
Whiners gotta whine.