I dont know how this game made it to release without the ability to disable Smart Pivot. it drives me insane.

I have the same issue. I like to be able to zoom way out as well, but when you set the camera distance, your zooms keep the same amount of ticks no matter how far or close you have the distance set, which makes it difficult to find a good spot sometimes. Also, it would be nice if we could completely detach the camera from our characters so i can point my camera in one direction while running and keep it there without holding the mouse in place.