I have thought that the thing for folks to do instead of destroying these cameras is to just put a black trash bag on it.

I hear truck liner spray paint works wonders.

Then someone would take it off. Spray paint is probably more effective, but still recoverable.

Google "<whatever the housing is made out of> chemical compatibility chart"

Then the camera isn’t destroyed? What’s the point?

It's an asymmetric situation.

The cost of putting a trash bag over a camera that is in your local community is likely to be significantly lower than the cost of whomever installed it having to drive all the way back out there to remove it. You might only have to walk 100-200 feet with a step ladder.

At some point, the cost can be pushed from an economic regime to a logistical one.

It's also visible so that drivers will be able to see the trash bag covered camera. Some will probably just think it is litter blowing around that got itself stuck. But it would bring visibility to the protest movement that painting a lens would not. If juries do start indicting/convicting, it'll be a lesser punishment as no real harm was done to anything.

It doesn't send the same political message, which is a huge part of the point here.