So happy to see another player who thinks that just moaning constantly is the best way to get what you want.
I'm not sure where you heard Beta 3 is the last build before Gamma.
I don't remember any videos saying you can have these external cameras look! All of the trailer videos could easily have been shot from a SideWinder, or more than likely a ship they removed the struts from.
I can fully see the benefit of being about to park up and use a camera drone to take a scenic shot of your ship, but other than that I personally don't think it's needed.
What I'm trying to make people understand is, the obvious and simple solution is to LIMIT external view to SOLO PLAY. The cinematic camera is obviously in the code, all complaints about unfair in Multiplayer do not apply to SOLO PLAY, so it is a simple thing to do and make a lot of people happy.
I understood from the timeline, they want to have the official release this year. So with Beta 3.x currently progressing and November at hand, I see it gets closer and closer. May be they pull out a Beta 4 and 5, in the end it gets ever closer to release.
Any discusion about "Drone", "Deactivating control", "time penalty" and other creative workarounds to prevent "cheating" are open to debate, as even a temporary glimpse around an asteroid, can be a huge advantage... but in SOLO PLAY there are no human players that are affected by that. And the NPCs won't mind!
To be really honest here: I bought the Beta because of the stunning videos and there was not the slightest hint you couldn't just watch the ships from the outside. That is a thing I do a lot in DCS World, in IL2, in <you name it> , as I love to see the cinematic epics of modern PC games... for me this little missing feature is a very bitter pill to swallow! With the paint jobs that you could buy it borders on the hillarious. Why pay even 10 cent for a paint job I can't see? To feel better?
I know a lot of debates on the forum went high about the 3rd person view and the "immersion breaking", "cheating", "unfair" arguments. So if you just step aside and open your mind to the idea of a nice panning external view that could only be used when playing alone, in your very own instance with no other player to gain advantage... and to watch your new paintjob on the ship... see the tear and wear! Take some nice screenies for the forums...