Yeah, but the instrumentation in a car is always there, your attention just isn't focused on it all the time- you're paying attention to the road, but that doesn't make the instrumentation leave your field of vision. I like the idea of cockpit art- it's been mentioned throughout this thread as a good way to immerse the player, and I agree with that, but I think it serves a secondary purpose- it's another way craft can be better or worse then each other. I think it's cool how some craft have the advantage of better visability, like the Arrow, but consequently, tend to have crummier armor- unlike the Crossbow, which has horrible visibility, but heavy armor.
Besides, going back to the car analogy- real cars and aircraft have blind spots, so I think it adds to the gameplay experience to force the player to deal with that too- and while I'm not sure I'd make the side and rear views so claustrophobic as the early WC's, (I remember looking behind you was next to worthless because you had a window about an inch tall by 2 inches wide) I really didn't like the "flying in an invisible bubble" feel of WC4 / Prophecy (and IIRC, the side and back views in WC3). WC1 even tried to build that blindspot factor into the gameplay- I recall someone in game saying the reason Dralthi were so quick to fly up or down as opposed to sideways was bad visibility. Why take that game element out?