Oh..very good question. Smart phone optics are an example of this, where image processing is used to enhance the image quality for display on a smart phone screen. This makes up in large part for the size of the pixels (they are so small tgat they butt up against physical limitations due to diffractive effects). This is a great example of work performed at the system level to flow down requirements in the interest of reducing cost, weight, etc. However, the optics themselves are still very good all things considered. The original design was brilliant. Here is a white paper discussing the design considerations. If you stay awake while reading, you will see the optical performance still stands on its own.
https://lenspire.zeiss.com/photo/app...ile-phones.pdf
For consumer photography where for example lenses can be swapped out, the design team cannot assume reliance on image processing. In addition, video lenses must provide the image quality as real-time image processing at video frame rates is not (yet) possible. It’s too processor-intensive. The optics that I design are the same way, but also with the twist that the potential for image artifacts causing issues at the system level is not acceptable. So image enhancement is not used in the systems I design for, and in fact with very few exceptions can image enhancement be relied upon to relieve the design requirements on the optics. IMO that will be true for the next 15-20 years or so.
In engineering design there is no magic. So anything that sounds magical is exactly that.
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