How come a sight or a scope of a rifle/gun is on top of the barrel, but still represents where the bullet will hit?
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It doesn’t, except at a very specific range. Users would be expected to select a distance they believe they’ll be shooting from, and adjust the sights accordingly. Practice is absolutely a thing as well.
And even if the sight was somehow in perfect alignment, gravity absolutely will cause bullets to fall over long distances and the shooter must compensate for it over longer distances
Firing a weapon properly like this is a skill.
Because with ordinary iron sights there are two, one at the back of the barrel, one at the front, and you align both of those with your target.
They can be made to not be quite 100% parallel with the barrel, but instead fractionally downwards.
But all that aside, they’re a guide only. A set of iron sights is only good for a specific distance, beyond or within that, you’d have to make judgements based on experience to make an accurate shot anyway.
Remember, a bullet isn’t a laser, it doesn’t fly perfectly straight.
You zero a gun to hit at whatever the sights are set at to begin with. If the sights/scope are graduated, and correctly designed, it should the hit a bullseye at the set distances afterwards by compensating for drop due to gravity.
If they are not adjustable (or when you’re not shooting at precisely the graduated distance) the gun wouldn’t hit a bullseye anyway, and you need to adjust your aiming point accordingly.
The only time it can actually matter is if you’re mounting a gun at point blank range to hit a precise spot, then you can just put a laser in the barrel.
TL;DR it doesn’t matter because of how aiming a ballistic weapon works. Bullets don’t fly flat.
The same goes for any other ballistic weapon, whether it’s a bow or naval cannon.
And of course this also ignores natral dispersion of any physical weapon.
Just an example –
My hunting ammo (.308Win) has a label on the box that tells you the predicted flight path, in inches, from where you’re aiming so you can adjust quickly in the field.
(as an idea example) something like 25 yards = 0.5″, 100 yards= -0.25″, 200 yards = 0″, 300 yards -2.0″, 400 yards = -4.0″
Notice that all the values are a negative arc to zero, with the apex at 200 yards.
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