This is a table issue; here is what the Cyclops subsystem damage entry in weapons.tbl says:
;;reduced from 1.0 to 0.5 by MikeK on 8/28/99. Player shooting one down would often blow out player's subsystems.
So I guess it was done for play balance.
Cause if you want to look at your own ship Plus, you have wingmates, which are often too close to you (i.e. colliding), and, you have hornets, which you're close enough to see (should they be hanging from racks), when you're on the tail of an opponent
As I said though, you would probably die even against the crappy AI if you spent time in the external view instead of playing normally, and if you're chasing a guy (so that his back is turned towards you), I doubt he will be firing his missiles at you. So the only place you will notice it is if you go into the external view and fire some missiles randomly specifically to see the effect.
Don't get me wrong, there are many such special effects I would like to see, but this one just seems like a lot of work for something that nobody will see during actual gameplay.
