Doctors watching an abdominoscopy from the sidelines gained a vantage point that others did not have the luxury of having, as both the onlookers and the surgeons were exposed to the same operating field.
This was very important; when it came to conventional and traditional surgeries, even the most advanced high definition panoramic camera would fail to capture every detail for the onlookers, compared to the surgeons and their naked eyes.
At the end of the day, the things that could be captured by the camera lenses were limited. And during the process of the surgery, complications that arose were not always limited to the operating field. There were times when the chief surgeon might make decisions based on things seen outside the operating field. Sometimes, the decisions might not even be made based on things they saw, but what they could feel with their fingers...