Preferred status bar style of view controller is ignored when in navigation controller

When you're in a navigation controller that will not get called. The navigation controller's preferredStatusBarStyle will be called. Try this along with your code:

extension UINavigationController {

   open override var preferredStatusBarStyle: UIStatusBarStyle {
      return topViewController?.preferredStatusBarStyle ?? .default
   }
}

There is a solution that is a bit more concise (and recommended by Apple):

extension UINavigationController {
    override open var childForStatusBarStyle: UIViewController? {
        return topViewController
    }
}