Benjamin Mayo, on iOS 26 design changes:

Modern iPhone screens are big, and specifically very tall. They are approximately 18:9 in aspect ratio, much bigger in height than width. Scrolling up and down is very natural for users to do, and the visible vertical viewport is already ginormous. Therefore, making bars minimise into a single row as you scroll has no functional benefit in terms of utilising precious screen real estate. There is always plenty of vertical space to spare.

In fact, the act of squishing controls into a single row actually exacerbates the relative lack of screen real estate in the horizontal axis. With iPhone dimensions as they are, horizontal space is constrained, and you have to be very selective about what can fit in the bounds of the screen’s width. Inevitably, this means important items must be hidden away.

I could not agree more. I am already a big fan of the Liquid Glass design aesthetic, but making the floating toolbars shrink to the point where they become pointless until tapped on is asinine. I have filed multiple feedbacks related to how this hampers the user experience. Here’s to hoping Apple is open to walking back some of these excesses.