Something being worse than something else doesn't automatically make it awful, nevermind the Note 2 was not better in Low Light than the Note 3 and the Note 3 is practically identical to the S4 in Daylight, which is better than the Note 2. The NOte 2 nad S3 both took great pictures, but they blew highlight out in daylight to an extent that the S4 and Note 3 do not. They also have slower sensors than the Note 3 so outside of using Smart Stabilization the Note 3 will still take in more light and blur less in low light than the Note 2. Sports and Action Shots are also better on the Note 3, and it has faster burst shooting than the Note 2. There is a lot more to a camera being decent than shooting pictures in a condition where 90% of smartphones will churn out noisy, crappy pictures, anyways...
You're comparing the Note 3 to the Note 2 with Smart Stabilization on, and it's not a 1:1 comparison. Smart Stabilization is not designed for people to whip the phone out and go snap happy. It's designed for Framed Low-Light shots, because it's a sort of HDR for Low Light Photos. The same way you wouldn't try to snap HDR photos of a child running around in a park during the day, you shouldn't be trying to snap Smart Stabilized Pictures of a Child Running around in a park at night.
Your rationale is... interesting, to say the least. In fact most people have bought nothing to the discussion with their complaints except their opinions.
Low Light Pics are fine with Smart Stabilization. If you hold the phone well, the camera shake isn't much of an issue. I've hardly been griefed by it, and I have probably 500 Low Light Pictures on my OneDrive that I took with this phone.
The camera on this phone is alive and kicking. It's better than some phones that came after it.
Anyways, I'm gonna see if I can dig up a sample or two to post a quick comparison between the two phones.
100% Crops incoming...
Galaxy Note 4 -1: Good Sharpness. Nothing wrong with the photo, practically, at all.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5tMMIqkDGBVcE5weWxEUjMwZDg/view?usp=sharing
Galaxy Note 3 - 1: Slight Blurring outside of the focus area, but probably due to me holding the phone with one hand while tapping the shutter button with my thumb, I was fumbling with 4 phones there taking comparison pics (M8, S4, Note 3, Droid Maxx + the Note 4 display unit
).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5tMMIqkDGBVNEYyN0VaX1dDVU0/view?usp=sharing
Galaxy Note 4 - 2: Higher Resolution than the Note 3, but the Noise Reduction Algorithms went to town on this photo. It's the best one I took.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5tMMIqkDGBVM0JKVlA1WDJGaVU/view?usp=sharing
Galaxy Note 3 - 2: Lower Resolution than the Note 4.
Smart Stabilization kicked in. Clearly the better picture of the two. Even the text in the far off boxes is more legible in the Note 3 pic than the Note 4 pic, because the Note 3 retained more detail in the picture (i.e. "6 ft Coiled Car Charger"). The Note 4 is better at dealing with the light reflection, however, the Note 3 pick is overall superior.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5tMMIqkDGBVcHRDYVlhZ0ttRGc/view?usp=sharing
So, if I can take a decent picture holding the phone in one hand and tapping the shutter like as if I was taking a selfie with the Note 3, it shouldn't be hard for any decently competent user with two hands on the phone to take a decent photo with it. The Smart Stabilization Algorithms work, and they work well. The sensor on the Note 4 is better, the camera is clearly faster (especially in focusing) and better at dealing with handshake (OIS), but not so much that it's a complete no brainer to get the Note 4 at this point in the Note 3's lifecycle. The Note 3, if handled well, can still turn out some great picks in outdoor and indoor lighting.
If you think the Note 3 is awful, then no one is stopping you from getting the Note 4, though. It almost seems like everyone wants to sort of get feedback to justify getting the 4. If you want it, and you think it's good enough, by all means get it! Who else is going to review the phone more thoroughly for the rest of us?!?!?!
As I said before, I have no idea how the Note 4 performs in Low Lighting but it should be much better than the Note 3 if it's even slightly better than the S5.
Unless you're cropping way into the pictures, the Note 4 isn't going to look like the massive upgrade over the Note 3 most people are making it out to be, unless you're doing Low Light (and Video) where I expect it to make most of the case for itself in terms of camera performance compared to the Note 3.
EDIT: Image Properties in Windows:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5tMMIqkDGBVY0xqbFFqYmhkMEE/view?usp=sharing
You can see the Note 3 Image used Smart Stabilization while the Note 4 did not (this is why Shutter Speed, ISO, etc. are not in the EXIF, it takes multiple exposures and then processes them to average out noise - quite well I might add). The results lead me to believe the Algorithms work well, as long as you can hold the phone decently still when you take the photo and the subject isn't moving quickly.
I am *never* perfectly still and my photos come out just fine unless I'm doing something stupid like what I was doing with my Note 3 in Best Buy - since I was more concerned with getting decent shots on the 4 instead... I can't take that one home
If I would have held the Note 3 with two hands on the first photo, I reckon the resulting image would have been practically on par with the Note 4, just with a bit more noise in it.
The Note 4 was shooting with longer shutter speeds than the Note 3, but a slightly higher ISO (which makes no sense to me, personally) from practically the same position and distance.
The Note 4 has an HDR Toggle on the Camera UI, but it doesn't seem to have Auto-HDR (I reckon Samsung didn't have Auto HDR in the Note 3 because it has Smart Stabilization which is kind of like HDR, but for Low Light Shots).
Sorry for the long post, but I hope these rough samples (cropped 100%) help anyone with their observances. Others are free to add to the sample pile!