Agree with everything. With hardware, I have realized that there should be a "critical updates only" mode with all hardware (similar to the silent toggle in an

Agree with everything. With hardware, I have realized that there should be a "critical updates only" mode with all hardware (similar to the silent toggle in an iPhone) - it's a clear intent from the user that they don't want to be bothered. With software, it is nearly inexcusable to do things incorrectly because most major platforms offer at least one right way to do things (not that the platforms follow the gospel themselves - as the OP pointed out). What we now need to more than guidelines - we need guardrails. At a minimum, I want to report apps which misuse the notification importance hierarchy, and those reports should impact the app-review cycles on app stores. On the topic of how much something wants to "alert" you about, there is a clear culprit here - of course, the notorious-on-HN software churn where people want to constantly be able to write "added feature X" on their appraisal sheet. It needs to stop.