In article ,
Whisky-dave wrote:

My smartphone camera and my point and shoot don't
seem to have any arrangement to move lenses further out or do much
anything different.

not all lenses do because macro is nowhere near as common as ordinary
photos.

Is Macro mode on such cameras essentially a con because their Normal mode
can focus as close as macro mode?

no, and it can't.

if you want to do macro with a lens that lacks a macro setting or can't
focus close enough, get a closeup lens attachment.

an alternative method was to reverse the lens,

that won't work for cellphones or point & shoot cameras, which is what
the original poster has.