You can set your focal range so that the entire picture foreground, background, and central subject are all in focus. Or when the “non-essential” details go out of focus (by choice).
The more control the photographer has in making the image, the more he is directly responsible for it.
You can set up an autoshooting webcam in the back of the venue and grab frames out of thousands of unattended shots and come up with some interesting images. But the human input was strictly “editor” at that point.
There you go, talking all about “focus”. So I ask, why not rename so-called “point and shoot” photography autofocus photography, since that seems to be the sticking point?