Southern California desert bird (1 Viewer)

This bird was seen at Zzyzx, CA. No, that is not a typo-it is a real place and an eBird hot spot. It is at the edge of the Mojave Desert Preserve.
This bird was seen May 6th of this year. It was seen in an oasis type environment in some Tamarisk trees. When first seen it was IDed as a House Finch, but when I reviewed some photos I took for ID purposes only, I had serious doubts about the ID.
This photo is poor-severely backlit. In post processing the brightness was brought up significantly and the yellow color saturation was raised. When I raised the red color, there was no change in the photo, so there was little red in the head area in real life. When I raised the yellow, this is the result.
The ID is in question; a House Finch with an aberrant beak or a Red Crossbill (immature, intermediate plumage).
To me the beak is "too perfect". Hard to believe that the beak would seemly perfectly match a Crossbill.
Give me your thoughts.

House Finch with an aberrant bill. Everything but the bill is clearly a House Finch.

Another vote for House Finch. Red Crossbill doesn't have that face pattern, or bill shape.

Thank you for the thoughts. I was afraid that was going to be the consensus. We will see what other votes come in.

A variant House Finch for me with a deformed bill.

Another for House Finch.

Here’s a (somewhat) comparable case—

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fugl/10973856814/in/album-72157687944116052/