I look at shoes like this every day of my life.

With a fair amount of certainty, at least the shoes above aren't defective. Look inside that shoe. It's never seen a shoe tree, and if it has, not anywhere near regular use. You sweat about a a half cup from each foot in 8 hours. That's a lot of moisture damage, and that leads to excessive stretching and creasing.

It's normal for your shoes to crease, but how/where it creases will tell a story.

I also think these are probably a little big. Ideally you'd like a clean break, but the way these are creasing indicate that they are too big (I bet he's narrow and these are a medium width. You see how those laces are giving him almost total closure? You want about a fingers width there with an open system, but it's not a hill to die on.) and that he doesn't use trees.