Yes, similar questions have been asked before: Azure Websites, Can one deploy .NET 4.5.2 websites
However, the questions are approaching a year old, and the answers are incomplete.
The (cloudy, no pun intended) answer seems to be that 4.5.2 should be supported as of many months ago (though other sources say only 4.5.1 is supported), but my Cloud Deployment Projects don't build (using SDK 2.5) and I hear others complaining of similar issues, but I can't find mention of anyone who has successfully made a 4.5.2 deployment work.
Does anyone have a definitive answer, or has anyone managed to successfully deploy web/worker roles to Azure using .NET Framework 4.5.2?
Poking around for awhile I found this: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/Dn873976.aspx
Which says:
Using Azure SDK version 2.5 you can develop IaaS applications targeting .NET Framework 4.5.2 or .NET Framework 4.5.3, provided that you install the target .NET Framework on the Azure virtual machines that run them. .NET Framework 4.5.1 is the most recent supported target framework for PaaS applications developed using this version of the SDK.
Sounds like it has to be installed manually for the time being. This was dated as of July 1, 2015.