Missing something obvious?

I read the sections on viewport controls twice through and still wonder if I'm overlooking something - is there not a way to rotate the viewpoint (not an actual camera) *in place* and not around an object or the world? You can do it in Studio (right mouse button and drag), but I can't find anything that explains how to do something so simple in Blender.

Also, I know ctrl-MMB or mouse wheel zooms the view in Blender, but is that physical moving of the view (again, not a camera) or a zoom? There's also a a Dolly Zoom option for the view, but the explanation is more about how Blender has a default zoom target and whatnot. I tried moving the view around in an enclosed environment and it wasn't behaving as I was expecting.

Thanks for any help.