At this point iRacing has surpassed ACC and become my main sim - F1 has been the third racing related game in my list for a couple of years now, sometimes even bring bumped down to 4th. iRacing doesn't even have camera options outside of replay mode; it's cockpit-only and the settings you can adjust are just the ones pertaining to FOV and POV.
I do like myself a cockpit cam, that should be obvious. Even with formula cars on iRacing: formula vee and FF1600, which are low powered open wheelers, and F4, F3 and now the SF23. The F4 and SF23 which are single seaters with halo, but honestly the halo is nowhere near the top spot of visibility issues in those cars as you get used to it pretty quick - and can make their edges semitransparent.
Most of my time in Codemasters' F1 games now are in cockpit view as well.
That said, the "drivers don't sit on the halo" kind of argument makes it to the front row of my grid of nonsensical things about racing games and sims.
Yes, cockpit cam is mainly for realism and a level playing field. But games, devs and pro drivers (drivers, real racing drivers playing on a sim - not eSports players) are all markedly conscious of how a sim can offer an approximation of racing in some aspects, and only a similar feel in others. Hence virtual mirrors, radars, and the like. Hence tons of dev time spent on supporting triple screens.
Real drivers don't sit on the halo. And they are acutely aware of the lack of depth of field, static POV, peripheral vision, and specially G forces. Even pro drivers (again, the real deal - professional racing drivers, not players) with thousands worth of triples and motion rigs and active pedals are all inescapable aware of that separation you get from being one with the car and track in a real cockpit, and sitting behind multiple screens in your living room.
Saying "drivers don't sit on the halo" is dismissive of the way even proper simracing titles put real money and resources into supplementing that deficit.
I do resent that the official F1 eSports scene is full of short races with ghosting and players on T-cam. But that's what this franchise aims to be, and what it provides. It's a video game.
It makes no sense to resent esport players for using T-cam when F1 games are miles behind proper sims in supplementing that realism deficit. No sense handicapping yourself when all you have is this arcade of an experience.
So yeah, real drivers don't sit on the halo. They don't play EA's F1 either. And it's ok as long as we take it for what it is, a simcade videogame and not a sim.