Monsters do not like light it keeps them from bieng able to sneak up on their prey.

I mean, that definitely works with smart monsters and I guess most of the ones I see in scifi are pretty smart

The lights do tend to go out pretty quick if the power lines are severed or damaged to the point at which they trip the breakers. The emergency lighting will tend to be fairly short-lived unless it's using tritium, in which case it's not very bright and tends to be used for emergency exit markers.
This assumes they are still using cables of course, rather than broadcast power or some other technology we don't have.

Of course, the big problem with the power going out is that it's going to take out the air supply systems as well.

That's true.

In this case at least the lights went out without the air because the air is on a secondary power system with different back ups so that's the explanation in this specific instance. Though it doesn't explain it for some of the other times I've seen it.

Well if it's panel lighting on a false ceiling grid. The panels are wired in a series like cheap christmas lights. if there is a break in the chain the whole thing goes out. Now if they did the lights in parallel wiring (higher costs, but better safety) the could lose a panel in the chain and the rest still works as long as the power wires are intact. Both configurations are dependent on an intact circuit loop for power.

Fair point, though I'd like to imagine that by the time someone is building giant space-stations that they've moved past the panel lighting layout.

The question is how cheap the people building the station are, cost and cheapness will always affect the building.