Zekkyou on 09 January 2015
You're not wrong in disliking it, it's just a matter of preference after all (i'm personally undecided right now).
That said, the whole reason they extended the horizontal FOV was to account for the vertical view that they cut. Like i did here (not perfectly to scale):
Could they have extended the FOV and removed the black bars? Sure, but that would require other trades off. Currently they've basically traded the vertical space for horizontal space, and the resources saved from the lower total pixel count were likely what allowed them to implement 4xMSAA. Essentially, both trades looped back into the the IQ/video space, which makes it appear it was a genuine artistic choice. If perhaps a slightly questionable one :p
Edit: Added better image
