It was/is present on the S3 as well, ans unless you root and ROM i think you are probably out of luck. Its a Samsung thing, and I imagine it is on the Note as well.
It is annoying mostly because it is so close to the X that allows you to clear your notifications that i constantly find myself turning on wifi rather than clearing notifications. Then i have to turn wifi off and go back and take my time being sure to hit the X rather than the wifi on/off.
It is dumb, but the advantages of the phone make up for the little quirks, and like I said, you can always root.