I guess this has been said before but I want to reiterate it here.

The 3 button navigation is simpler, much faster than gestures and less prone to input errors than gessure navigation.

It’s easier to use the phone one handed when using 3 buttons especially considering the size of phones nowadays.

The only real downside to the 3 button bar is the space it takes away from the screen. I can’t deny you get better immersion due increased screen size and gestures being intuitive (for me at least.

With that said I understand that depending on the brand the feel of gestures and their quality can vary (like between a pixel phone and a xiaomi device), but in terms of efficiency (and maybe slightly improved battery life due to less animations) and simplicity the 3 button navigation is still miles ahead.