I gave up on custom views a long time ago as well. I’ve followed written tutorials. I’ve watched how-to videos. They’ve never worked for me.
Once I got my X56 HOTAS that had a small analog thumb stick set for free look, I no longer cared about customs views from that point onward. Now I have a yoke and have my XBox controller attached to it that I use for free look (analog sticks). Problem solved as far as I’m concerned.