What Westy is trying to say is:
When you use maximum zoom in AH you are seeing things the size they are supposed to be.
When you are using the regular view, everything is 1/3 of the real-life size.
So the realism does not suffer.
As for the gameplay, since yoy give up a lot of SA (Situational Awareness) when zoomed in (you see everything 3 times bigger then default, but the area you see is 9 times smaller), it does not really give an unfair advantage to anyone.
miko