I don’t really notice the notch at all when using the phone like I normally would. I notice it when I look for information in the top bar and see much less than I’m used to unless I drag down from the top right corner.
I don’t watch a lot of video on my phone but I have tested with YouTube and the notch isn’t really noticeable there either. They simply fill in space with black bars to make it 16x9. Because the phone has an HDR OLED screen the phone basically looks identical to my iPhone 6 when this happens. I can’t tell I’m looking at a blackened area of the screen instead of the old bezel. This is also what happens in apps that haven’t been updated to use all of the available space on the X. Maybe the trailers app does this differently.
I’m with you on learning new gestures though. Most of them are straight forward enough but I’m still not sure how to force an app closed from the app switcher.
Press and hold on an app once you’re in the switcher. Delete symbol will appear in the upper left corner. Slower to close a single app, but faster to close multiple apps.