I always have my phone on silent mode and have messages turned off for most apps, so I’ll have to check them manually. This is less stressfull to me. I just get to relax without being bothered.
So I think I prefer a regular watch since I don’t see the benefits of a smart watch in my situation.
I’ve done some research and I think the problem isn’t that it’s adding bars, but that it doesn’t fill the 4:3 material to the full height of a 16:10 screen, it just stops at 16:9. I don’t mind that for 16:9 content or other content that is wider but it’s annoying that the 4:3 material doesn’t use the full height of my screen.