It's absolutely NOT about "calibration" or whatever other excuses, because (every other manufacturer's) phone cameras use a more or less standard interface based on MIPI CSI, and are basically designed to be plug-and-play to allow ease of integration and development. The only things that could be considered calibration in camera modules are presets that are stored in an EEPROM, and affect the quality of the image at most. It would not cause any of the symptoms outlined in the article.
In other words, Apple went out of their way to do this. They probably use the EEPROM to store some additional serialisation data, check whether it matches the data stored on the mainboard, and then subtly sabotage the behaviour of the app based on that. It won't be long before the truth surfaces.
They've already done similar shady shit with even simpler parts like batteries: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20641424
