Pfft. Gladiator chickens, uncomfortable pilots… same thing. 
In the techdemo we had a ship powering down. Maybe not requiring cameras allow you to power down 100% while using your eyeballs to ambush your target when they pass.
Plus, small ships are so small that there really is no reason to hide the pilot, considering there is not much stuff to put around him. Making the cockpit armor-windows thicker makes the pilot more protected adding less weight than trying to rearrange everything to protect a pilot from all sides. And finally, if you are being followed and shot from behind, the safest place is up front, in a protruded “glass” ball that is as protected as possible from enemy fire and radiation/coolant/chemical leaks that result from projectiles hitting components and etc.
Oh, and if they ever decide to add escape pods for small ships to float around, the pods could basically be the cockpit with an engine behind. So the explanation is that you can’t eject the pod to flee the reactor’s explosion/radiation/etc if its deep inside the fighter.
But for big ships… The only viable explanation for bridges sticking out is the escape pods story, but its not really good enough.