The problem was never the sensor. It's that nothing built to go over one was designed by anyone who cared how it looked.
The patches are just more tape on skin that's already had enough. They add a second adhesive layer over a spot that's already been under adhesive for a fortnight — and they still look exactly like what they are.
The fabric armbands slide down and hold the heat in. The elastic gives up after a few weeks, so you spend the day pulling it back up, and in summer it's a sleeve you're wearing on purpose.
The silicone ones look like sports equipment. Fine at the gym. Not fine with a dress, at a wedding, in a photo you'll still have in twenty years.
So the real fallback is sleeves, or taking it off before the photo. One means covering up in July. The other means an expensive sensor in the bin and a gap in your data for the sake of one picture.
It isn't vanity, and it isn't you being difficult.
Nothing on the market was made to be looked at — so the only two options anyone gave you were hide it, or put up with it.