Yeah, LOAF is right. That brought atmosphere into those games.
Although I got used to see more without them, that can also be nice.
But I really liked cockpits, too. Like in the raptor in WC1, you really knew that you were sitting in a heavy fighter.
And I liked the little effects like the broken instruments when your fighter was damaged, or the fact that you had to hit the "c" button more times to get your comm-screen.
Lovely. Simply lovely. I still love it after all those years. Most games don't get this great feeling today.
The problem for modders creating such things is: Every ship has to have a different cockpit (otherwise it sucks), someone must model them etc. Much work if you want to make them look good.
And if cockpits don't look good, then I rather want no cockpits at all. This is my opinion about that.