I’ve been flying with an IR camera pod supplied by GRT for goose to seven or eight years now, hung under the wing of the RV-8. GRT actually has software that puts the camera view in the background of the PFD, the same way that synthetic vision is scaled and so you can still see a horizon, altitude and airspeed tapes, etc.
It is fun to have, works well, but the truth is, IR doesn’t see through clouds, and you have to learn to interpret what dark and light mean on the screen - its not always obvious. It is useful at night on a moonless night to makes sure you don’t hit a horse or cow on landing, and can be used at night to find a place to go in an emergency in dark country. It’s also useful taxiing on a dark airport to make sure you don’t hit a coyote or jackrabbit - but you probably will be taxiing with landing lights to help prevent that.
I think the price points of current generation cameras are probably too high for the additional risk reduction the average pilot will get out of one - but then again, if you have money to spend and just want one, it doesn’t add much in the way of drag if the pod is properly designed.
Paul