I have to disagree on many parts of this article.

1. The “notch” is a technical limitation since they couldn’t “hide” what’s needed behind the screen. I agree that we don’t have a choice other than embracing it, but that doesn’t mean that Apple’s solution is right!. They bragged about the “ongoing” activities, then they hide it using a “color” behind the clock. Not a smart choice since this alienates many people with color disabilities. In addition, cramming the status info (clock, wifi, signal, battery, etc.) around the notch resulted in a visually problematic alignment and UI.
2. Gestures is a big discussion. First introduced on Nokia Symbian. Then adopted by Google and Microsoft before Apple came late to the party and started making it Mainstream. From a UX point of view, Gestures are a nightmare waiting to become a reality. I totally agree that the user of 2017 isn’t the same as 2007. But a new user is still “new”. And instead of having a 2 minutes learning curve for anyone switching to iOS from everywhere else, iPhone X makes it 2h. In addition, the inconsistency and abuse of gestures makes Apple designers sound like they rushed to “add” them in order to figure out solutions to things that shouldn’t have existed if they took the time to actually think about it.