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The solution since you have a Pixel is GrapheneOS. If you don't trust your OS and permissions to not fire up your camera when you're not the one doing it, than you shouldnt be running it.
Can't install it on a pixel bought from at&t ☹️
Already have GrapheneOS, still don't trust it
Theres no reason not too, its open source, you can verify its not doing anything in the background that its not supposed to be. Unless you're literally the 0.0000000001% you don't have a threat model that justifies that level of paranoia, but even if you did, that's literally who Graphene was made for.
Its signed and verified boot is intact, its not getting fucked with after the fact. Even if you used a shady app, its powerless against your permissions and camera toggle.
GrapheneOS could run inside of a hypervisor which is controlled by malicious actors. This is a possibility because I have no idea what happened to the device hardware before I obtained it. Thus the cameras can't be fully trusted.
Wrong, aside from the fact you should have been the one to install Graphene, even if it came preinstalled, the first thing you should have done was wiped and reinstalled. Secondly, running a HV on Android aside from it being very hard to due, and making the phone run like complete shit which you'd 100% notice in usability and battery like, would require root access, which would mean failing verified boot AND leaving the bootloader unlocked. Then on top of that, there's the fact Graphene can audit itself to verify everything is OK, while that move does require a 2nd GrapheneOS device, it's completely unneeded because of all the other things above that.
You're being totally paranoid man. You're not Edward Snowden. There's no 3 letter agencies after you, no "malicious actors". You're not going to get better than GrapheneOS if you want to carry a smartphone, not a useable one at least. Grapehene has proven itself, EVEN as far as Snowden is concerned!
Please remain civil. We got it, OP doesn't trust the OS completely, you believe he's being paranoid. This can stop here.
Oh, ok. You sound like someone who is very experienced with implementing embedded hypervisors so I'll just take your word for it.