Is the Mercury targeting pod on Su-25T useless?

So I’ve been playing the Su-25T and I’ve noticed that the Mercury pod doesn’t seem to be in any way better than the integrated camera present on the plane. Am I missing something?

thats an NVD
so, might be usefull in night battles
but thats it

Dang, I’ve been carrying additional weight all that time

Does it provide better angles perhaps? I know build-in camera on Su-25 is quite good at anything frontside, but no so much for passing by targets (not like you gonna use that much, but still - better angles is better angles)