Sapphire cracks more easily than regular glass. Sapphire is extremely scratch resistant but it is brittle due to it’s hardness.. The lens on the iPhone is some sort of sapphire hybrid(close enough that it is “technically” able to be called sapphire)and not pure sapphire so it has been shown to allow scratches at a lower point on the mohs scale than real sapphire.
The bezel for the rear camera is secured to the inside of the phone so the rear glass is not something you want to try and replace.. As @Ebok stated, the only way would be to heat the glass and pry it out which is easier said than done due to all the debris from removing the glass piece by piece..
Thanks for the vote of confidence but I wouldn’t mess with a repair like that only because there’s too high a chance that water resistance is gone and broken glass is a pain to remove completely without leaving debris that may hurt the cameras performance or clarity... I’d just get an out of warranty replacement which definitely dents the wallet.
I’ve seen jerryrigeverything replace the camera outer glass and it was fun to watch. Don’t think I’d go that route considering how well the glass was secured to the bezel. He used a utility knife to chip out all the glass but removing the tiny chips that were stuck to the adhesive looked almost impossible due to the exposed camera lenses and lack of room to scrape. He even said it wasn’t a pretty repair
