Which market will bring costs down and feed into the next cycle of development, a market that potentially includes everyone - or a market restricted to desperate legally blind people? I'm not a fan of consumerism, but it goes a lot further in improving the lives of everyone, versus conspicuous virtue projects.

There is nothing phone-camera specific about this idea, the (lay) article just uses that as an example of "conventional camera".

Visual impairments is pretty broad, and this approach is using collimated light so not general purpose - but things in this direction could plausibly have applications in the area.

If these get in phones they'll help people with visual impairments way more and at a much lower cost.

Sorry for the downvotes. I'll get downvoted too bc of my username. I agree with your point. Instagram is evil.