You fail to grasp the value of 4x as many pixels. It is NOT just about the simplistic visual blind comparison of unedited pix that you propose. Sorry for shouting, but more image data has huge value.
My 12 MP ~2001 Nikon D2x makes good 13x19 prints and so does my 46 MP Nikon D850, pretty much visually undifferentiable if one simplistically compared well-shot prints from each camera. However, competent photogs edit most of their pix, and cell phone camera systems in particular do a large amount of post capture processing. More image data available is good thing.
Your commentary (and this article as well) fail to grasp that the photog needs to involve in capturing and using the additional available image data. No free lunch, it takes work.