Austin Mann with the quote I was hoping as a 12 Pro owner:

I shot in tons of different lighting scenarios, and frankly in many of the scenes both cameras rendered a beautiful image and I could barely see a difference between iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Phew! I gambled on getting the smaller Pro this year because I really don't want a giant phone, and I was hoping that Apple was playing up the advantages the 12 Pro Max had in their event last month. Austin has some low light comparisons that absolutely shows a difference, but the difference is subtle enough I'm personally happy with my choice.