Originally posted by Weaver:

So our "special" group of players can whine about how terrible everything looks close up?
In all seriousness there is a mod for it. It's not perfect, and I mostly use it just for strolling through my base and such, just for the neat viewpoint. It simply lets you scroll all the way in with the mousewheel. Absolutely terrible on combat, but great for just looking at stuff and getting perspective and scale. Hopefully its something they add to the game officially at some point.

The main thing is, why not? As you said, it's really good for walking around in your base. The third person view is terrible in that case, honestly.