That’s not what works for me (or did, since now I’m on Big Sur). What did work was click and hold on the body of the notification and then flick to the right. It didn’t work all the time, but enough that I wasn’t driven completely insane.
(But yes, you are right that this is much better)
The options are:
I get that they want to drive upgrades, and Apple is uniquely successful in this regard. But there are cases, as you know, when it is wise to hold off:
Interesting. Just tried that, and it does nothing on the previously-mentioned notifications on Catalina.
How bizarre. I’ve got nothing, then.
Those two are well-known undismissable notifications (re-signin to Apple ID, system updates are available.). I was talking about notifications that can be dismissed, like app notifications and calendar alerts; those I’ve been swiping away since at least Mojave. (Just checked to be absolutely sure on my iMac running Mojave.)
The other class, which can’t disappear unless you click later or click on them to open them - yes, they are a pain. But I’m guessing that Apple thinks of these as relatively critical alerts. If you are somebody who syncs often with iCloud (desktop and documents in iCloud, etc.), it’s probably pretty important that you re-authenticate to iCloud ASAP. And system updates, which likely include important security updates - Apple probably thinks you should do those as soon as possible, too.