How to capture good photos on a smartphone

Every one of my phones' cameras have always been set to pro mode(since it was actually useful) my LG G5 and V20 were great at taking advantage of the pro mode. Now I use an Asus Zenfone 9, pro mode is actually amazing, and the physical final makes low light shots at 1 sec+ exposure much easier. The pixel line pretends to have the "best camera" but the sensor is actually pretty meh and relies too much on "ai" post-processing. I have seen first hand that there are better cameras on phones than any Samsung/pixel phone. If a camera needs post processing it's not a good camera.