I belive the project was started by someone who was not a programmer. I bet your first project didn't look that great either ;)
I am currently reviewing safety critical code written by two very respected companies and occasionally that code looks worse than the snippets author showed.
Is it possible to program this device without the espresso SDK and the arduino stuff?
Whether I'll use C++ or Rust for my next project depends on which one I can first get working on this board with the standard toolchain (GCC and Rustc respectively)
Note that this behaviour is limited to scene mode, which has a moon shoot mode. You can always use the normal or pro mode where the pictures are not magically enhanced.
Is is ridiculous that OP consider this "cheating". Most people just want a nice picture and don't give a damn about AI.
I am currently reviewing safety critical code written by two very respected companies and occasionally that code looks worse than the snippets author showed.