It was with
Lave Radio back in March 2016.
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True, but they did provide 'geography' flying in CQC, which delivered that in spades. (Seriously love that mode, even if it was almost certainly deployed too soon in the game's lifespan, and with not enough player motivation beyond fun)
I too am aggrieved that we don't have planetary CGs, reasons to use dangerous low flight, reasons to buzz big cities. And that's without mentioning pursuing convoys down valleys as shown in past trailers etc....
But bear in mind, CQC architecture has been added to the game and they say gameplay will follow, new missions are coming in some form with 2.3, and hell, probably a ton of other surprise layerings up that may bring that type of gameplay. They doubtless have intent in these areas.