cam2ip VS pi-webcam

a quick google search found cam2ip which claims to be able to do what you want. I would focus on putting my effort towards figuring out a program that can do what you want and not a specific distro :)

You can access Camera2 API via NDK since API ver 24, for devices that do supports it. I tried to do something here but never finished https://github.com/gen2brain/cam2ip/blob/master/camera/camera_android.go. Before that, I successfully used a camera with native access from OpenCV 2, but that is only on very old devices, can't remember exact API versions. For everything in between I believe the only way is to access the camera from Java, then pass that via JNI or something like that.

One trick could be done by using this docker, and pass through your USB webcam to it

I have another Pi, a Pi Zero W, that I use as a webcam. There's a camera module you can get for them, plus compatible lenses. I downloaded someone else's software build to make it work, so all I really did was physically assemble it.

You need several Pi Zeros but you can turn them into a USB cameras.

Turns out Linux does have support for it - you can do it with a Raspberry Pi! So I feel like it isn't a ridiculous thing for Android to support.

There's this project [0] which turns a Raspberry Pi into a USB webcam. It works with the RPi IR camera.

[0] https://github.com/geerlingguy/pi-webcam