The Photos app does not need permission any more than any other Photos app. It can ask "Photos app wants to access your photos" and you can click "Always", "Selected Photos", "No" and download some other app to access your photos. That would be the "equal" thing to do. Let the user pick what app they want to access their photos with.
Same with the Camera App. It can ask "Camera App wants to access your Camera" and you can say "No" and then download some other camera app and make that your default and grant it camera permission.
But surely you can see that that's a stupid state of affairs?
The built-in Photos app is just a basic built-in photo viewer. So the user is not allowed to view their own damn photos without clicking through a bunch of permission prompts like they're running Windows Vista.
The app even comes from the same developer as the operating system. If you don't trust that developer to make an app that views your photos, why did you buy a phone that runs that operating system in the first place?!?
It's not basic at all though. Photos comes with iCloud sync and storage upsell. Preferential treatment, promoting their own paid services and subscriptions. (it also has some ai features from apple, with which they could be literally just a step away from upselling an ai subscription)
Music as well, it's not just an audio player for local tracks, it's upselling a music streaming service.
It kinda seems stupid to have no choice there, or predatory rather, given how the lack of choice is never just coincidental with apple, and it's very much an intentional lock-in first, and then whatever marketing spin second or third. "Privacy, that's iphone ... that's why you should give us access to all of your data, cause you trust us, right? choose yes or yes." Getting suckered into "trusting" something is kind of a pathetic argument regardless of wherever it comes from.
In addition to that, there are permissions that Apple gives to its own apps that it denies to competitors even if the user consents to it, e.g. permission to install third party apps is given to Apple's store app without asking but can't be given to the Steam app even if the user wants that.
Same with the Camera App. It can ask "Camera App wants to access your Camera" and you can say "No" and then download some other camera app and make that your default and grant it camera permission.