Also, the video of the foam chunk hitting the Columbia's wing.

An early Falcon 1 launch failed because the first stage recontacted the second after staging. You'll note one of the F9 cameras is looking up at the second stage from inside the first stage's interstage section.

A camera is a tool for rendering light on a medium. That medium could be a sensor. Rendered light can tell you a lot about what the medium is facing, but you can pack a lot more sensors than cameras on to a spacecraft. Especially on the parts that aren't illuminated. Besides, you need a big sensor on a camera to capture anything in low light without a lot of expensive processing, and that means you need shielding and cooling because they get hot and don't do well in all that radiation.

So sure. You could put huge chips in hot boxes with delicate glass all over the craft. Or could you wire in a bundle of little sensors that tell you stuff you'd never get from light.