Thank you!

M4/3 is a 2x crop, we get twice as much DOF. You will lose sharpness as well. With a telephoto lens like my 40-150 f2.8, I do use f8 or F9 because the DOF is too shallow otherwise for landscape. F4-f6.3 is all one needs to get enough DOF at wider angles. Even at f2.8 at 12mm you will be fine. I’m not sure which lenses you have though.

Welcome to the forum.

Who doesn't ☕ ☕ ☕ ☕

I think that your photos are good examples why you wouldn’t want the camera to make decisions for you. I maybe wrong, but looks like lens flare to me. As it was suggested, expose for the highlights and things will be fine. Btw, f8 is not needed with m4/3 unless you are doing something artsy with wide angle.

Here is an example from the same senor. I hope you don’t mind. Click on download