So it seems the majority of replies are in favour of blinds up, then. Now we ought to petition the carriers to introduce a Blinds up / Blinds down seating system as in the days of yore when it was "Smoking or no smoking, Sir / Madam?"
Whilst the thread meanders towards external cameras, I came back from Dubai to H/Row on an Emirates 777 a couple of years ago, which had two cameras, one looking vertically down, the other in the nose, which displayed in the seat back vid. screen, and the Captain was a Top Wallah, he kept the cameras on right up to the gate at the terminal.
It was a cracking view from the nose camera on final and landing. If there had been a set of controls at my seat, I could have probably lent a hand with the landing! (There again, perhaps not!)