Just about all the 'canned' modes can be done manually.. For instance hyper lapse can be done by flying slowly and pressing the shutter button every second or so. Automating the process just makes it easier.
But the super res feature is more than just another pano mode. It can't be done with any camera... which is why the feature isn't available on the
Mavic 2 Pro.
It can be done on any camera, and it is literally a panorama. The way it's done on the
M2Z is particularly easy to do manually, much more so than hyperlapse for example, but you're right that most of the built in features can be manually duplicated with relative ease including the flight modes (dronie, point of interest, etc.). I'm sorry but that is how it works, it's just marketed differently from a 'feature' perspective. It is not anything more than a panorama, it is just stitched in a way that you end up with a 48MP image. It doesn't do anything to overcome the shortcomings of the 1/2.3" sensor. For those that don't like to do any PP work, it can be a handy way to make a pano for sure, provided the drone does a good job stitching. I think where people get confused is that it gives you the same FOV as a wider shot, so they don't think it is a panorama, but that is literally what it is. The
M2P's Panorama mode gives you an image with greater than 20MP resolution, so it does technically have a "super resolution" mode, it's just not marketed in the same way and is geared toward an even wider FOV.
Think of it another way, imagine you have a landscape scene, you can capture it in a single shot with a wide angle lens, or you can put on a telephoto lens and capture the same scene with a 4 photo panorama. OR, you could move the camera closer and take those same 4 photos with the wide angle lens to end up with exactly the same end result. The former is what the
M2Z is doing, but the end result is no different in either scenario.
Another way this is done in the camera world is with pixel shifting - the cameras image stabilization mechanism will shift the sensor ever so slightly in other directions, and after merging approximately 8 photos, you end up with a 'super resolution' image. It's not as good as a native image of the same resolution, but it is close and helps to eliminate moire. I don't think DJI's gimbals are precise enough to mimic this effect, but it might be something we see in future models.