Big pixels are better than small pixels, other things being equal. It's mainly to do with the signal:noise. Big pixel = more signal. In low light/high ISO the noise is a bigger proportion of the total output and that can be seen in low light pictures from small sensors. A long telephoto also means less light to the sensor so even in good light the pictures are likely to show a lot of noise.
I'm amazed how good many phones appear to be in low light through a tiny lens and with a tiny sensor. I haven't worked that one out yet - I suppose it helps that many people only look at the pictures on the phone at a small size, but I have printed some fairly respectable ones. They have clever methods of combining pixels and producing lower res pictures with reduced noise. I still have a Nokia 1020 Windows phone that takes really quite good pictures with a 40Mp sensor.
The difference though with 24Mp in a full frame SLR is however unmistakeable. The limiting factor is more likely to be me, occasionally the lens.
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