The version that makes the most sense to me (and I'm not saying it's what I believe to be true) is that they weren't sure if the video and pictures they took would work so they prepared backups ahead of time. There were concerns about whether film would be ruined by the radiation belts.
So, the astronauts really took photos of what they were doing and really were recording video. Whatever of that was usable was used, eventually, but they used the backup stuff too.
A Rogan guest laid it out pretty well a few years ago and it seemed to explain all the incongruities I had ever heard of without requiring the entire program to be fake, or even every to be aware of the fraudulent elements.
It's a fun conspiracy theory space, since it really doesn't matter one way or another.