Why is 3d scanning any more of a gimmick than photography? When I travel I scan things for the same reason I photograph things.
And it's a gimmick because it's a tiny niche of people who do that, and I wish I didn't have to pay extra for a phone for a lidar. Would take a fingerprint scanner any day. Or a headphone jack.
This is simply untrue. Most 3D scanning apps on iOS make no use of photogrammetry or they do it as an alternate mode for smaller objects. I don't know of one 3D scanning app that combines the LIDAR with photogrammetry. They use one or the other depending on the scale of the object you're scanning.
> And it's a gimmick because it's a tiny niche of people who do that,
It's not the reason Apple added it. They added it for AR and photography. Arguably the former is a gimmick but the latter is future proofing and might end up being a game-changer.