I've definitely seen this before (if you zoom out beyond the level where a projection makes sense, it switches to a globe). I was actually a little surprised when I tried it just now, and it stayed on the projection at any zoom level; I thought the globe was the only behavior until I read this and checked it.
I've seen it before, but never thought to seek out the projection, but I could set the maps to "Globe View" under the layers button in the down left corner. It's much nicer now :)
Mercator projection is best, with gnomonic and equirectangular coming in at distant second and third. Globe perspective projection has niche uses. All others are useless/solve a problem that is irrelevant.