With the imminent venue of VR this is a most important subject and priority for the realism of the DCS sim, Lockon/DCS were always a pain to spot and find distant aircraft unlike in real life. Using the zoom to spot things is no preferred seriously and real bad in VR, we do not zoom-in period. I understand that fighting with missile 100's miles away is a thing in DCS or at list in the Lockon arena but now with WW2 aircraft and trainers and a mix era choices i think it's a big problem and I hope it will be fix/modified for the best use on VFR (Visual Flight Rating)
IL2/RoF are pretty good on that matter