Allow me to bust a few myths…
Here’s a little piece of my mind, based on some recent inquiries from friends as well as various opinions found online.
Shooting in JPEG only—especially if you've got a camera that can generate a custom look, or "recipe"—is valid. You don't need to shoot in RAW and edit every photo; for close to a century people have shot on film and developed it with hardly any manipulation. Much like using a JPEG recipe, the "look" was chosen before shooting—by selecting a specific film stock.
Shooting in RAW and editing in post is also valid, and not "cheating". Ansel Adams famously said, "You don't take a photo, you make it." And he should know; not only did he painstakingly compose every shot, he also did plenty of manipulation in post to optimize tonality. When developing prints in a darkroom, one can use many tricks to lighten or darken portions of the photo, remove blemishes, and even to alter colors—tricks that have been digitally replicated in software such as Adobe Lightroom.
Using editing presets/styles/LUTs in Lightroom, Capture One Pro or similar applications is also not cheating. Some fabulous preset libraries have been created by experienced photographers to mimic specific film stocks, moods, or other visual effects that can lend a specific vibe to your photos—and do so consistently. People who insist you need to spend hours tweaking every slider and knob until things look the way you want, and repeat it for each photo, are frankly nuts. Presets exist, so you might as well use them; you can create your own once you've found your own special look, or you can buy a few dozen presets someone else already spent the time creating, usually for a very reasonable price. The choice is yours.
Shooting in Manual is not required to be considered a "professional". Sure, it's good to know how the "exposure triangle" (a sad misnomer) works, because it lets you get more creative and get the most out of the light you're given to work with. But just because you understand how shutter speed, aperture and ISO are mathematically related doesn't mean you need to constantly hand-adjust these settings when your camera's internal computer can do it a thousand times faster, without you even having to think about it. Do you know what professional photographers do? They decide what they want to capture, and then they pick the appropriate mode: for portraits with subject-background separation, Aperture Priority; for street or landscape photography where the entire scene should be in focus, also Aperture Priority; for freezing fast-moving subjects, Shutter Priority; for long exposures, shutter-dragging or panning moving subjects, also Shutter Priority. To be honest, the only reason I can think of to shoot in Manual is to make sure your exposure stays consistent across multiple shots in high-contrast scenes, in astrophotography, and other applications requiring a fine balance between shutter speed and depth of field. And if you want to use the camera's Program or full-auto modes, go right ahead. They're not my favorites, but they are provided for a reason.
Last one for now: taking art photography (street, landscape, portrait, etc) on a mobile phone is valid. The camera in a modern iPhone or Android is light years ahead in quality over early film cameras, and to say they can't take "real" photos is BS. It's not the camera that takes the photos, it's the person holding it. A good photographer can tease a good photo out of the most primitive of cameras; a bad one can't eke a decent photo out of the most advanced.
More come to mind, but I'll leave it here. The rule of thumb is, if a certain workflow works for you, use it. As long as you're creating art and the process is yielding the desired results, keep doing it that way. Don't listen to pious gatekeepers who think they invented photography. In fact, study the people who really did invent photography (or were pioneers in advancing the art) to learn the rules they broke in order to create their particular, now revered, style.
Keep the faith, and keep shooting.
