So it might be that Fairphone is not aware how to make the notification bar transparent. It’s a setting in android development they can enable. (Disclaimer: I’m not a developer.)
With that in mind, they seem to be saying it was intentional to hide their lack of knowledge. It’s simply unreasonable that any developer would want such a hideous defect permanently at the top of the home screen.
On a positive note, I believe android 15 is supposed to correct this when the developer does not.
Could be that you didn’t pay your internet bill, or your modem has no service.