iPhone 14 Camera performance

My brand new iPhone 14 does not autofocus on close objects like fine print or small QR codes. My older iPhone 11 performs just fine under the same conditions.

I brought my iPhone to my local Apple Store and demonstrated the issue. At first the tech support team treated it as a bug or configuration issue. But after pulling in several team members the conclusion was that this very poor close up performance is actually by design. I could not believe that this was truly the case since my old iPhone 11 autofocuses fine and how could an iPhone 14 with a much better camera possibly do worse? Hence my question to other users, do you have the same problem with your iPhone 14s?

Is there a patch for this problem?

Note: Both my iPhones, 14 and 11 are standard models.