The lower picture clearly looks more professional to me... I have no doubt the little point and click the fan used has all the technical specs to take a great pic, but I don’t think anyone looking at those 2 pics and had to pick which one the professional took, would pick the top photo.
I think that the top composition, with the cellphones in the crowd, was selected because (A) it showed audience members taking shots and (B) it showed how close some of them are to the performance.
In the online comments, some critics said that the top image would not be selected by an editor. Yet it WAS selected to illustrate this article.
I think so, too. I’ve just got a run of the mill Kodak 12MP camera, and I can shoot a pic just as good as the first one.
Not all that impressive if you ask me.