"You still have to find your subject and point the lens at it"
The finding I enjoy, and don't need a camera for. I am also willing to point a lens, and even to click a button.
Digital cameras routinely take videos, and boast of e.g. being able to focus on 9 faces at once. So there's plenty of sophisticated technology in them, but much of it happens to be directed at things that don't interest me. I basically wondered whether there are cheap cameras where taking focused close-ups of tiny things easily was a design goal; if you think the answer is 'no', that's fine and thanks for telling me, but I am sure it cannot be technologically impossible. Economically impossible, maybe.
"You will only reap what you sow."
Nah. The purpose of all machinery is to increase our yields.