they both ran the same build, I checked it. same numbers.No there will be no damage on the lens from restoring. That is simply a snapshot of your previous settings that will be restored. My question was simply, given the observation that the in-store model produced sharper results, what is the difference between that one and yours? It could be the software version. It's unlikely that the in-store models run on a beta. Most likely, they run on the latest stable build, which yours should do too. In that case the imaging pipeline should be identical. So unless its a hardware defect, the only other option that remains is some settings that are affecting the imaging. The cleanest test would be to reset the phone. Only sign up via iCloud and set up as a new phone. Don't restore from a backup and dont do a transfer from an older phone. take pictures and see if there is any difference.
There is little hope that this works given that @nunolikeapple tested some devices in store, and they didnt show much better imaging results, if I remember correctly. But it might be worth a try, to rule out some scenarios.
but I have a hard time telling whether the issue is still present after I reset the settings