You don't need a full DSLR camera, a simple Bridge one will suffice and for a fraction of the price. I picked up a decent Pentax bridge camera a few years ago... It takes fantastic pics compared to any phone camera and was actually cheaper than my current phone (Moto G5S+) as I picked up in a sale.
A phone is fine for opportunist pics, but is never going to give you brilliant results. But if you want to take some great shots then you need a dedicated camera to do it... or be an expert with photoshop to make those lower quality images look better.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
