It wasn't obvious to me, but I found a neat feature that, when enabled, lets us swipe down from the top right corner to open the notification panel fully (so skipping the notifications).
Swapping down from anywhere else will show the notifications as normal (and another swipe down from there will then show that fully expanded quick settings panel).
Press that edit button (that pencil icon) at the top right of the fully expanded quick settings panel to find that settings.