I don't view notifications as a corner case. I think two factors are key:
1. Can the user predict the UI change? This is close to the static vs dynamic idea, but doesn't matter if the UI changes. If the user can learn to predict how the UI changes, processing the tap makes more sense. This allows (power) users to be fast. You usually don't know that a notification is about to be displayed, so this doesn't apply.
2. Is the action reversible? If a checkbox appears, undoing the misclick is trivial. Dismissing a potentially important notification with no history, deleting a file etc. should maybe block interactions for a moment to force the user to reconsider.
Often even better is to offer undo (if possible). It allows to fast track the happy path while you can still recover from errors.
1. Can the user predict the UI change? This is close to the static vs dynamic idea, but doesn't matter if the UI changes. If the user can learn to predict how the UI changes, processing the tap makes more sense. This allows (power) users to be fast. You usually don't know that a notification is about to be displayed, so this doesn't apply.
2. Is the action reversible? If a checkbox appears, undoing the misclick is trivial. Dismissing a potentially important notification with no history, deleting a file etc. should maybe block interactions for a moment to force the user to reconsider.
Often even better is to offer undo (if possible). It allows to fast track the happy path while you can still recover from errors.