Hot take, so controversial it counts as trolling: all notifications should default "off". Anything that can interrupt or distract the person using a computer or other device should be explicitly turned on by that person.

There are exceptions for things that can cause serious harm if ignored. "You've got mail" is not an exception. Neither is "someone liked your social media post".

@liw some mail is serious! but otherwise, yes, i should explicitly opt in to being notified about emails. (i filter out most "non-important" things from my inbox, so if it lands in my inbox, it's probably important.)