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When the GSetting org.gnome.desktop.notifications show-in-lock-screen is true, new notifications will briefly power on the display. This happens even though the screen isn't locked.

To reproduce, run the following in a terminal:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 60
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-enabled false
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.notifications show-in-lock-screen true
sleep 120 && notify-send wakey wakey && sleep 60 && notify-send wakey2 wakey2

From this point on, do not interact with the the computer.

Outcome:

1. After 60 seconds, the display turns off (expected behaviour)
2. After another 60 seconds, the display turns briefly on and then off again (unexpected)
3. After another 60 seconds, the display again turns briefly on and then off again (unexpected)

It is both unexpected and unwanted behaviour that show-in-lock-screen cause the display to power on under any circumstance (i.e., regardless of the screen being locked or not). Nothing about its name suggests that this will happen.

It is definitively annoying to have a bright display flicker on and off every so often, especially if you're in a dark room doing something completely different than being at your computer (e.g., sleeping, watching TV, etc.).

Furthermore, it is even more unexpected that show-in-lock-screen does anything at all when lock-enabled is false. The very name of the GSetting strongly imply that it only impacts behaviour when the lock screen is active. In other words, disabling the lock screen (by setting lock-enabled to false) ought to have made the show-in-lock-screen GSetting a no-op.

I am running Fedora 33 with gnome-settings-daemon-3.38.1-1.fc33.x86_64.