I think it's not "zooming with the sensor", but has a slim lens stack to enable optical 2x zoom. The whole system is also PDAF, so they need the movement anyway.
It'd be nifty if they did that, but I'm skeptical they'd introduce something like that on their new budget model.
If it were an optical zoom then it would be able to take 24MP and 48MP shots like it can in 1x mode, but it is limited to 12MP which highly suggests its just a crop.
No, it’s literally a digital crop exactly like the other sensors that use 48MP sensors. There’s nothing magic here. I would be shocked if it’s anything different than the exact identical camera used in the base iPhone 15, quite frankly. The cheaper versions never use the latest hardware for the cameras.