Yup of course they care about margins... they balance in many things. I never said they were better just their choices about sensors will have been agreed a while back and I admit that cameras in smartphones have stagnated some what. But again... most people use the camera, just want ok pictures, and then share them in social media which thoroughly ruins them anyhoo. And the manufacturers know that.
Huawei have a massive problem in that they can't get their phones any traction in the US market due to security concerns (that strangely Samsung and LG and HTC don't have) but they have overtaken Samsung in the key Indian market. But people still buy Samsung and Apple over them. It just proves that camera performance isn't all that (even though Samsung say the camera re-imagined)
There was a discussion about merging a decent camera body with phone functionality a while back on here. I asked my mates in the phone sectors and they said that people are just not interested. They will buy a camera if they want a camera, a phone if they want a phone. Samsung/Nokia/Sony have all tried making phones with bigger sensors and the sales haven't' always backed up the r&d time and money.
We shall see how the P20 Pro does, but I'm sure that it won't be a massive seller compared to some other devices - yes for many reasons
As an aside - my mates in the phone industry said that the sales of the S9 haven't been stellar. Not a big of enough upgrade was the general consensus with one saying they did an Apple so you could be proved right and me fall flat on my rather large backside
If I was picky - I prefer the Porsche Design version... but then it's price is not as appealing! I also didn't like the software experience last Huawei phone I tried. If I get a chance to try one before upgrade which I seriously doubt I could change my mind, but currently an S9 looks the preferred option for me - with a big reason being I have a Gear 360 which I'm going to hang on to