This isn't just my observation but lots of people around me and also you can find tonnes of feedback on the inter webs.
The processing of images taken with the front facing camera on the 15 (and I think 14 before) is so over processed that I'm aware of people jumping to other phones. And they're right. The 15 exacerbates that even more. You can turn off HDR (a viewing thing), you can prioritise speed over processing but really you cannot turn this off. You can take a Live Photo and then choose a different frame and the processing is less.
As a developer I look at that and think it's bonkers, it's just software so why hasn't anyone produced a camera app that makes faces look good (not AI processing) from the front camera.
I can be all enthusiastic and say I will develop one but it seems like a simple, obvious fix for Apple.
To have the settings so bad that I have friends returning their phones, seems pretty bad. And as a photographer I would agree. There's a lot to love with Apple on the 15 and the log and prores but a simple selfie produces such ugly results. That's an actual problem.
So throwing it it out there. What does everyone think?
cheers Paul