Zoom is FOV. That’s literally all zoom is or ever has been - narrowing or widening the FOV (it is subtlety more complicated if we were talking about a physical zoom lens assembly, but we’re not). And yes, it always comes with some distortion, because it’s impossible to map a wide angle view of 3d space onto a 2d screen without distortion.
If what you want is to move the camera/pilot’s head forward or back to be closer or further in distance, that isn’t zooming, that’s… well technically “translating” in game design speak. And there are default keybindings to do that in the sim. Try pushing the UP and DOWN arrow keys while holding R ALT.
But personally I would HATE it if the mouse wheel did that. It would be so disorienting to be always flinging myself forward and backward like that. No, the current behavior - focusing or widening my view from a fixed point - is correct.