does ios26 really prevent toolbars and child views from functioning?

I'm building an app with a min iOS of 26.

In iOS 26, bottom toolbars are attached to the NavStack where in ios18 they were attached to a vstack or scrollview. But in ios26 if the toolbar is attached to something like a vstack, it displays too low on an iPhone 16e and sits behind the tab bar. Fine.

But with a parent-child view, the parent has a NavStack (with bottom toolbar attached) and the child view doesn't have a NavStack. So...that's a problem.

The functional impact of this contradiction (bottom toolbars go on the NavStack and child views don't have a NavStack) is actually two problems.

  1. the parent view bottom toolbar shows up on the child view (because it's the closest NavStack) whether it's appropriate on the view or not.
  2. the child view can't have a viable bottom toolbar because without a NavStack any buttons are hidden behind the tab view.

The second problem can be worked around using a top toolbar or safe area edge inset instead of a toolbar at the bottom or something. But those don't solve the first problem of the parent view bleeding through.

So, I have to be crazy, right. Apple wouldn't create a scenario where bottom toolbars are not functional on parent-child views in ios26.

Any suggestions that I'm missing?

does ios26 really prevent toolbars and child views from functioning?
 
 
Q