It felt like a placeholder so future generations wouldn't have to increase the notch's size for Face ID.

But if they remove it again, then I'll be confused.

actually, why not have face id? that would be great, i really don’t like touch id on my mac.

Looks like Apple has been working on this, but for whatever reason hasn’t launched it

Even without Face ID, the notch houses more than just the camera. "David Pogue posted an image on Twitter, which seems to be the new MacBook Pro's camera module. In that, we see a 1080p camera, TrueTone sensor, ambient light sensor, and a camera status LED." https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-s-notch-houses-more-than-just-a-1080p-camera.574456.0.html

Given that, I don’t see how they lose the notch without losing everything but the camera. Tone and light sensors need some distance from the illuminated display, and the status LED is wired to the camera power to show you definitively when the camera is powered on. That LED has to stand out at any time.

It's branding, mostly. The phones had a notch. Design language dictates that the laptops can too, since it's Totally Not Ugly (but it is).

Also, macbooks are slightly taller (16:10 aspect ratio) than most Windows laptops (16:9). Slightly taller even with the notch, since the extra screen is on top of the 16:10. So there is admittedly not much room to fit a camera on top. Personally I would prefer a slight bulge at the top and a rectangular screen, but with a black background, it isn't too awful. Drives me mad with any other colour, though, I just can't unsee.

I think it’s so that they could accommodate a 1080p camera (previous generations were 720p). Looking at other laptops with 1080p cameras, manufacturers have approached this in a few different ways such as a thicker top bezel or a protrusion upwards beyond the rest of the bezel (This shows some computers but is certainly not exhaustive: https://www.adorama.com/lists/laptops-with-1080p-camera). For the MacBook, it’s a reasonable compromise because MacOS has the omnipresent menu bar (except full-screen mode). The top-center portion of the screen isn’t used most of the time. That being said, the height of the menu bar was increased on Macs with the notch, so I’m not sure on the difference in usable space. I would certainly like to see Face ID on the Mac in the future though.