I don't know, when I look at old shots from my (now) 15-year old DSLR, I'm still shocked sometimes how much better they look than my iPhone photos do. It's just basically impossible for a phone camera to compete with something with a larger sensor and lenses. Phone software can certainly help, but sometimes that just makes it look worse by over sharpening/over smoothing or killing the dynamic range just to make everything more visible.
That said, I haven't used my DSLR in years. I've considered getting a used Fujifilm, but haven't taken the plunge yet.
You could try for a sort of middle ground, either using a different camera app that allows more control, or even just shooting in RAW + JPEG in the default app. That can allow you to better recover highlights and shadows without going too heavy on HDR if you're shooting in more difficult lighting situations. A lot of times (particularly in good light) messing around with the RAW wouldn't be worth the effort, but for important shots, sometimes the extra control afterwards can produce a better result.
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