IIRC the 1st-person-view was a bit broken, and there wasn't much reason (or anyone willing to spend the time coding) to fix it. I remember when I had used it and many things just didn't look right or display properly.
Rather than putting time into coding it to work properly - and maintain functionality when other things got developed - It just made more sense to simply drop it instead.
Keep in mind that this game's engine has been customized, altered, and modified so much from the original Quake II engine it came from that I would think putting FP view back in isn't likely as easy as flipping a switch, but would probably require re-working parts of the engine all over again to add in support for something that isn't really one of the project goals or intended features. I don't know all this as fact, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were true.
