The pop-up status bar notice will move to the opposite side of the window if you mouse over it.
That doesn't address the issue of wanting to *see* what's under it without mouse action, but if you have the status bar solidly taking up space you wouldn't be able to see that part of the page anyway.

I'm not that bothered by the missing status bar, but there were some status messages that I liked to see. I'm getting used to not needing to see them.