I think it’s less useful for people who are mostly identifying mobile animals, but when IDing plants, I usually have maps shown as satellite view in order to better see the habitat type and surroundings. In this case a lot more information is gleaned by the close zoom on satellite view. I can see the observation is in a sunny, recently disturbed area as opposed to an adjacent woodlot.
I do a lot of click click click click click click click click click 10 or more times to zoom in already and really appreciate it when users set the zoom closer intentionally. See feature request to transfer that existing functionality to the new uploader: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/maintain-map-zoom-level-when-creating-observations/8195 and other request to set your own default zoom level preference: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/set-the-default-google-maps-zoom-level-for-observations/6827
Related? Obscured obs should be more zoomed out, regardless of the observer’s selected zoom level, right?
So anyway, I don’t have a strong opinion on how the “large accuracy” observations that are the subject of this topic should appear on Identify (i.e. retain the zoom level but fill the screen the accuracy circle color vs. automatically zoom out), but I’d lean toward zooming out. For normal/small accuracy radius and geoprivacy=open observations, I do think observations should retain their manually set zoom level as chosen by the observer/user.