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It's required for the proprietary camera algorithm software. The camera still works.

That's true of older models, but unlocking the newest ones seems to break the stock camera entirely:

https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz1-compact/how-to/h...

I know that Xperia doesn't sell in the US. Assuming it sells elsewhere (Asia maybe ?), is the camera such a crown jewel for Sony to go through such lengths to punish their buyers ?

I think they are doing reasonable well in Europe.

You can restore that back after unlocking bootloader

Only if the device has a known root exploit that lets you back up the partition before properly unlocking. For example, this is not yet possible on the latest XZ1 series.

You can do it from flashtool which should work on the xz1