I haven’t tested to verify the following is workable, but I think it is:
If you overlap, rather than mirror, then 1 would match the top of 2. That could be nearly seamless when moving back and forth (depending on how you use/resize various windows).
I just now googled that myself (never wanted that feature before) and I tried it.
Right click on the desktop of the non-primary monitor
Hover over Add Panel and from the submenu that appears select Default Panel
Edit:
Getting rid of the extra panel was far less simple than adding it. I blundered through that and managed after several attempts. But I couldn’t describe how.
The correct remove choice after entering edit mode is very hard to get to. I found remove choices several times blundering around in there and all the ones that were easy to get to remove icons from the bar, rather than removing the bar from the second monitor.