The 8th level Barbarian feat Animal Rage does this:
You transform into your animal. You gain the effects of the 3rd-level animal form spell except you use your own statistics, temporary Hit Points, and unarmed attacks instead of those granted by animal form. You also retain the constant abilities of your gear. If your animal is a frog, your tongue’s reach increases to 15 feet. Dismissing the transformation gains the rage trait.
Given that you use your own statistics, what exactly do you get out of a 3rd level Animal Form spell? As far as I know everything the spell gives you can be referred to as a statistic, and has been by Paizo. For example, in Reading Creature Statistics it is implied that everything you might find in a creature's stat block is a statistic.
If you interpret the "statistics" the feat refers to as only those mentioned under "You gain the following statistics and abilities regardless of which battle form you choose:" and not those mentioned under "You also gain specific abilities based on the type of animal you choose:", then why would it be heightened to 3rd level?
As far as I can tell, the only thing that does is increase the Temporary HP (which the feat explicitly says you do not use), increases your AC and the damage bonus of the form (both of which are listed under the "statistics and abilities" section, and the damage bonus is listed as part of the unarmed attack which the feat explicitly says you do not use). The same goes for the Attack bonus and Athletics bonus.
Are there any answers here or are we stuck waiting for Errata/FAQ?
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I believe the general consensus is that you get those things listed under the specific animal form other than attacks, as those are 'specific abilities' rather than statistics (this almost entirely consists of specific movement rates). A lot of GMs would probably give you low light vision and imprecise scent as well, though RAW make that a lot more dubious.
As for why it's Heightened, spell level is super relevant for things like Dispel Magic, and is thus always worthwhile to note even if it has no statistical effect on its own.
Errata to clarify would be nice, however.
The feat gives you a new form, and being shapeshifted makes you resistant to polymorph attacks.
I'm not sure it's supposed to do much mechanically.