I’ve noticed that the ambient light with external views is brighter than inside the cockpits. I flew a night flight yesterday in the Citation Longitude, and it was absolutely pitch black outside except for runway/taxi lights and the city lights, but otherwise I couldn’t see anything. I had to use the map in the MFD and the synthetic view to find my way down the taxiways to the runway because they were simply not visible at all outside the window.
Once I went to the external camera, I could see a little better, although it was still dark enough that I still had trouble making out the taxiway markings. (It was overcast conditions though, so maybe that contributed to the darkness.)