I sleep outside on the Camino often. I do it out of choice, even when I have lots of money. Even when it is cold and raining. I just like it, and last year I didn't even use a tent. Church porches are good when its raining, but when its warm with no chance of rain I like concrete picknic tables, they stay warm for a while if they have been in the sun all day too. It means I can walk in the late evenings or sleep out on the Meseta after a nightwalk etc. Last year I had the company of a young fox while sleeping out in a forest above Villafranca. Sometimes I pay and book into an albergue, cook, shower and chill out with the other pilgrims then go and sleep outside. No obnoxious smells, no bag rustling and no snoring. Lots of fresh air. If I am in an albergue that is completo I am very happy to give my bed away to someone who needs it, and have done this often.
I like Spanish bars after all the pilgrims have been locked up for the night. Sometimes they really come alive at five past ten! And there are a few bars on the Frances that let you sleep outside in their porch if you buy a meal.
You also get to meet many 'characters' that also sleep outside for various reasons, that you would not meet otherwise. In a church porch on the Primitivo I met a young girl sleeping there in the rain who was amazing. She walked from home in Belgium, was robbed of everything while in Paris, and carried on to Santiago with nothing. No money or credit card, no footwear, no rucksack, no coat and no ID card or passport. She ate from the fields and out of bins. And she was very happy (and would not except money from people). She said God will provide.
I was sleeping outside on the Camino Finisterra when I was woken up around midnight by a young French girl carrying a guitar. I said hola, she said 'I have a bottle of wine'. We walked together from then on. It took us seven days to walk to Finisterra from Negreira!
I have never had any problems at all. In fact the opposite, I have been offered barns and sports halls to sleep in by locals. One man brought us newspapers to line the floor of a church porch on a cold night in the mountains, another brought a bottle of wine.
And sometimes I get a hotel room!
Davey