Why is the iPhone 11 “selfie” camera so horrible and grainy?

I recently got an iPhone 11 for Christmas to replace my iPhone 8. I was so excited with the amazing quality of the back camera, but the front facing camera is horrible quality! When it doesn’t look grainy it makes me look either really pale or the colors are weirdly saturated. I compared it with someone’s iPhone 12 and there’s a noticeable difference. The 12 looks very clear and I did not notice any grain, or any issues with saturation. We held them next to each other and took the same selfie and the quality on my iPhone 11 made me look horrible compared to the 12! (Both photos were taken in the same lighting!) I know others are experiencing this but I’m not sure whether it’s worth it to pay an extra $200 for good camera quality or if Apple is working on fixing it? Just odd that such an expensive phone has worse quality than older versions.