I hear all the complaints about the Belkin screen protector. I've been using them since at least the iPhone 7, but have also used a lot of others before and during, on alternate phones of mine and on family members' phones. Personally, that gap is a total non-issue for me, especially since the edges are in practical terms protected by the curve of the display and the raised edge of the Apple leather case.
Here's a very recent (Sunday of this week) real life story involving the Apple leather case and Belkin InvisibleGlass screen protector. I was walking one of my dogs in the rain, on the side of the road. My 11 Pro Max, in an Apple leather case with the Belkin screen protector, feel out of my pocket without my noticing. It landed face down, apparently, in the road, in the pouring rain, almost like being in a river. I didn't figure out that the phone was missing until we'd gone a couple of hundred yards. We went back and found it in the road. Luckily, no one had driven over it (it was more or less in the middle of the lane). The screen protector had shatter marks and cracks around nearly the entire edge, and several very large impact star cracks in the middle-ish part of the display. When the Genius and I peeled it off, the phone's display was absolutely pristine. Was I lucky? Somewhat. Do I think that the case and the screen protector are better protection than most people give them credit for? Absolutley.
