SwiftUI NavigationView Title Bar Taking Up Excessive Vertical Space

Question

I'm developing an iOS app with SwiftUI and facing an issue where the NavigationView title bar is taking up more vertical space than I'd like, and there's also excessive spacing above the first card in a ScrollView. This happens before I start scrolling and the space does not reduce even after applying .navigationBarTitleDisplayMode(.inline).

Here's a simplified version of my view structure:

import SwiftUI
import FirebaseFirestore
import FirebaseAuth

struct DashboardView: View {
    @ObservedObject var tripManager: TripDataManager
    @ObservedObject var userViewModel: UserViewModel
    @State private var username: String
    @State private var showingAlert = false
    @State private var alertMessage = ""
    
    public init() {
        self.tripManager = TripDataManager()
        self.userViewModel = UserViewModel()
        self.username = ""
    }
    
    var body: some View {
        NavigationView {
            ScrollView {
                VStack(alignment: .leading) {
                    // Cards...
                }
                .onAppear {
                    fetchUserData()
                }
            }
            .navigationTitle("Dashboard")
            .navigationBarTitleDisplayMode(.inline)
            .navigationBarItems(
                trailing: HStack {
                    Button(action: { /* User Profile Action */ }) {
                        Image(systemName: "person.crop.circle")
                    }
                }
            )
        }
    }
    
    private func fetchUserData() {
        // Fetch user data
    }
}

I've tried the following:

• Ensuring .navigationBarTitleDisplayMode(.inline) is set.
• Using .edgesIgnoringSafeArea(.top) to extend the ScrollView.
• Applying negative padding to the top of the ScrollView.
• Cleaning the build folder and restarting Xcode.

None of these have resolved the issue. The navigation bar still shows with a large vertical height, and there's a gap above the first card within the ScrollView.