If I May Offer Some Of My Own Interpretation For Why This Is Supposed To Be Degrading:

If I may offer some of my own interpretation for why this is supposed to be degrading:

First of all, it makes it harder for the guards to sympathize/empathize with them, which leaves them with even less hope to get out and leads to them being treated harshly consequently, which is degrading. And the android looks play their part in that even if it wasn't something that they'd personally see as degradation. (Of course the guards would be doing their jobs anyway but it leaves no room for tricks, no room to even try to pretend to be a human, no room for one of the guards to show weakness and question what they're doing.)

Most obviously: they're being forced to do something. They didn't just go "ah wait actually let me remove my skin rq it was getting kinda uncomfortable anyway", the guards ordered them (mind you, the androids they caught that *were* deviants had been trying to *escape* getting ordered around and now they'd be ordered to do something (something that would lead to their doom too) again, except this time it's not even just "in their program" to blindly follow orders. This time they're being threatened and forced to do something against their will.) It wouldn't even matter if they wouldn't usually mind doing this, being forced to do something and remain in that state in order to not be killed is degrading.

Another aspect is that androids live with their skins being turned on. At least so far I have seen no instance of them turning it off just for the sake or "looking their true self" or anything like that, Markus did it in the tower for the sake of not being recognized as easily and yes, probably also to represent androids, but I've seen no other android do that voluntarily. Of course one could argue that that's because they need to fit into the human society, but even in their safe haven they remained with their skins turned on. Noone in Jericho seemed to think "Ah finally, I'm away from the humans and amongst other androids now, let me show my true form in peace", of course that can all just be because they're in the middle of a revolution, but saying that "they're like that", without acknowledging that they in fact do not spend most of their time "like that" doesn't really seem like a strong argument to me. I understand what you mean and I agree that under different circumstances their non-human designs wouldn't be degradation, but these circumstances make all the difference here.

Furthermore, it creates uniformity. All of the androids in the camps look exactly the same, except for male and female body shapes and the one kid, Alice, maybe their eye color and facial shape if we're looking into details up-close. But if we're just seeing the camps as they are, it's just a bunch of androids that can be lumped up and killed row by row. Even if they weren't as connected to their human looks, their identity still gets stripped away by making them look uniform. Yes, that is what they look like, but no, I do not mean their "humanity" when I'm referring to their "identity". I mean their individual looks that keep them from just becoming one big mass to the humans.

Additionally to that: Androids seem to have a certain connection to their skin. Think about North and the android that was the same model as her, they have been living their lifes with these skins and I honestly find it hard to imagine them not having built any kind of connection to the looks they'd gotten used to at all. And then having that be taken from them forcibly and having to see no mercy in the way the guards perceived them... That is degradation.

And last but not least: these camps are supposed to mimick concentration camps. So they did the equivalent of shaving their hair off and taking their autonomy, individuality and hope. Taking the last bit of similarity to humanity (of course not actual humanity in the case of the androids, but similarity, which is the only way these humans would've understood and not been able to ignore that they are alive too, by seeing their resemblance) any human could see in them and sending them to die. The most important part of this degradation is their death becoming inevitable and looming over them as the humans give them orders they can't fight against and the panic about the upcoming destruction rising as they're forced to do something themselves that'll move them one step closer to their death.

I've got no intention of arguing much further here though, just thought I'd share my thoughts on this too, hope you have a nice day

I just finished Detroit Become Human for the first time and I’m in desperate need to talk about it