Comment by aeonfox

Most of the 'image processing' on phones involve AI processing to make all pictures look 'nice' but same-ish, which is not really what the market wants from dedicated high-end camera with big optics and sensors.

But a very small sensor paired with a good telephoto lens is an interesting option. You can get away with much less glass for the same zoom but the downsides of a small sensor. So you get something like the Nikon Coolpix P1100 which has 2000mm full-frame equivalent magnification, but only 16MP and terrible low light performance.