Just buy a compact camera. I have a Sony ZV-1 (though the RX100 is more geared towards photography if that's your preference) that I carry in my pocket, usually instead of my phone. It costs less than top it the line phones with way better picture quality.

Seriously, if you care that much about your camera, don't buy a phone as your camera. Cheap out on your phone instead.

Nobody in their right mind is carrying a separate camera with them everywhere they carry their phone.

I guess me and my Fuji X-E3 are out of our minds then.

I like taking good photos, so I carry a camera.

idk cameras can get kind of expensive and have a bunch of accessories

phones are simple and low fuss

Phones can get expensive and have a bunch of accessories too. I don't get your point honestly.

Did you look at either of the cameras I mentioned? The class of camera is called a "point and shoot"[0] for a reason.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point-and-shoot_camera

I think there's a lot of manipulation of public opinion in the camera processing as well. I got rid of Pixel (6 Pro) because of its camera - it does quite well for landscapes, but on people's faces it's really bad - I used to get gray skin, eye color turning blue to black etc. This usually happened in low / incandescent light. Never seen something like this on other phone cameras. I guess it's just overreliance on AI which then just "guesses" wrong.