Yeah but as father of small children, camera that is always in the pocket is hugely important for me. AFAIK Xiaomi camera app/drivers/whatever is the proper name is a signed blob that has no source available, so something more basic is used instead in those free distros. Thus photo quality suffers since its finely tuned for given sensors/lens/cpu combo. At least that's how I grokked it few years ago.

Since then I've realized phone is by far the most important device in my life, so not cheaping out on it anymore and seeing the difference in every photo.