I think it greatly diminished functionality and I actively avoid apps that use it

I tried using gestures multiple times and always went back to 3 button navbar. Back gesture constantly interfered with any kind of side panels and opened apps gesture always triggered the app drawer on my home screen.

Besides navbar is plain faster and offers additional features, like keyboard selector and screen rotation when auto is turned off.

wild to me that it was still supported in the first place, would’ve expected Lollipop at most

if you had usb debugging enabled before it died, you can use scrcpy to mirror phone’s screen to your desktop