I actually found the design of FF12 had me spending an inordinate amount of time not looking at the scenery. Why? Because I was spending the whole time running around with the camera planted on my backside I was constantly getting disoriented and looking at the minimap. For like 50% of the game I was running around starring at a wire-frame drawing. What a waste of of developer money on such a gorgeous little country. (I refuse to call FF12 a world).

I can agree as well, I think the happiest hybrid of the two would be to pull of Xenogears/BoF3-IV dungeon layouts where the camera is fixed but its possible to rotate it anywhere from 90 to 360 degrees depending on what's needed.
The camera was one of the weaker aspects of Xenogears IMO. I never found the ability to control it added anything to the game, only the hassle of moving it from places you didn't want it to be and causing disorientation when entering areas with the camera on a different facing. I don't see what having it movable added that having smartly crafted camera angles for every area wouldn't.

*Also note that when I say 'fixed camera' I don't mean it has to stay in one place. I mean that it's movement is predetermined and not in the players control.