while we're on the subject of digital cameras, what's a good recommendation for getting a cheap one? i've wanted one for a very long time, but i don't know what is a good investment to spend money on.

Because they know that if you're serious about photography that you probably have Photoshop or some other correction program. JK, probably what feld0 said or something along those lines. I feel that if apple could throw another gimmick on their phone that they would.

You also have to factor in the fact that "More megapixels!" sounds better to non-photographers than "full control over shutter speed, aperture, exposure settings, and a myriad of other things professionals use to make stuff look awesome".

Man, xkcd has a comic for every situation:

I think it has to do not so much with the sensor's quality and moreso with its physical size. There is only room for so many photons on a cellphone-size image sensor, so it seems reasonable to me that it is simply impossible for such a small, tiny camera to capture enough light in dark areas to form a quality image worth looking at.

Still, would it really take that much space to make something halfway decent? It seems to me that a larger sensor would be eons better than the craptastic LED "flash" to try to add light when in reality it just washes everything out.

You also have to factor in the fact that "More megapixels!" sounds better to non-photographers than "full control over shutter speed, aperture, exposure settings, and a myriad of other things professionals use to make stuff look awesome".

True, but a side by side comparison in an ad or something would demolish that argument easily.

Man, xkcd has a comic for every situation

Indeed.