I just picked Alpine Linux for security and efficiency built in mind out of the box. It still required a lot of configuration, for lowering attack surface and hardening.
I know you asked for a lightweight distro, but from a security standpoint, I recommend using whatever allows you to relock the bootloader. Which looking up I dont see any choice. If relocking doesnt matter, then any distro for speed is basically any distro that comes with as minimal stuff as possible.
Also, I might be wrong so do some research
Android used to be an OS for cameras, but was bought by google to make a smartphone OS. Not saying what you are saying isn’t true though.
I did do a lot of configuration actually to it.