1) only certain notifications that are important have unique sound, vibrate, etc.
2) other semi important notifications flash. Light is not that bright to notice.
3) other notifications have numbers on app so there are some despite not seeing any notifications.
Result: I stopped checking every hour. It's actually been an improvement for me to stay away from phone.
I noticed that some apps abuse you for disabling notifications and Viber is biggest example. I don't care about holiday wishes or viber news but I need app to stay in touch with some people. Sadly, I only check at most once a fortnight because of this disabled notification nagging.
Seems like a catch 22 that it's a lose-lose.