the notch is a physical thing; no way to hide it in software. meanwhile, i use hidden bar on my macbook to hide lesser-accessed apps, and it's awesome (and free). there's also the excellent bartender app.
hidden bar works for me (but i don't have that many apps). no 'notch problem' here 👍Hidden Bar doesn't address the notch problem since expanding it to get at some icon might move those icons under the notch. The only way to address the notch problem is to have the expansion happen below the menu bar. This is offered by Bartender and Ice. I use Ice and it works well.
I refuse to buy Apple products with notches.I refuse to buy/install menubar apps from China.
(I get the annoyance of the notch, but to me is allows moving the ever-present menu bar "up" and out of the way to where there would just be empty bezel space anyway on a "regular" laptop, freeing up a little bit of screen space for other stuff. I'll take it.)
I feel the same way you do, but I wish the menubar were a few pixels thinner, with the bottom flush with the bottom of the notch. Maybe even make it black with white text. Are there any third party utilities that would allow you to do that?