The camera is not neutral. Every photograph involves choices: what to include in the frame, when to press the shutter, how to present the result.
Documentary photography has a trust contract with its subjects and viewers: this is what I saw; I have not materially altered it. The ethics questions are about where the line is. Cropping: fine. Removing an object with generative AI: not fine. But adding flash to an unlit scene, which changes the mood and appearance of everything: common practice, rarely disclosed.
The viewer can't always tell. The photographer knows. That asymmetry is where the ethics live.