Mike Rockwell at initialcharge.net posted Hide the Notification Badge on the iOS Settings App.

I read this and hadn’t implemented it until it happened to me.

Apple sent the iOS 26 update to my phone. Now I have the red badge on my settings app. I have no interest in updating to iOS 26 right now.

So, yeah… I did the same as Mike here: I created a Shortcut to launch Settings to replace the Settings app, because it has a permanent red badge. These are the times we live in. Ridiculous.