I think this is basically what we've been calling fake HDRI. I use this in images where there are reflective surfaces, and the camera angle is such that the sphere (the big one you map the image onto) doesn't show. It makes for more realistic reflections. You didn't mention turning off "cast shadows" for the big sphere in the materials editor, but I do that, too. The light passes through the sphere then without casting shadows inside. And once you put the camera inside the sphere, it is hollow, no need to boolean.

This is not my "second childhood". I'm not finished with the first one yet.

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

"I'd like to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather....not screaming in terror like the passengers on his bus." - Jack Handy