“For better cameras” like… I don’t see it. Back in the mid 2010s and late 2010s before the bump trend iPhone, Google and Samsung had the best phone cameras, and both were flat and with decent digital zoom and stability (for a phone). If you look at the photo samples for back then and compare it with now the difference is almost imperceptible.
That ugly bump makes big phones even harder to use and weight more now, plus if you’re one of those who never liked using a cover now I bet you’re forced to use one because of the added vulnerability of the bump.
Edit mid 2010s to late 2010s (until the camera bump appears around 2018)
Emphatically disagree with you on image quality, the cameras are pretty much the only thing that are still noticeably improving between phone generations for me. This improvement is seen by proper photography review companies like DxO too.
Digital zoom is still shit today, but it was so much worse back then. We now at least have AI supersampling doing something slightly better.
The photos you’re looking at must be either cherry picked, perfect conditions, day time photography, or you just don’t know what to look for when comparing image quality.
The easiest comparisons to see the difference will be low-light night time photography, and photos with high dynamic range, such as shooting through a bright window from inside a dark room, etc.
This is all without pointing out that video image quality (using those same cameras) has improved even more noticeably since the phones you’re talking about. And with people increasingly caring about shooting video, this also explains why.