Have you tried using Ctrl + Mouse Scroll Wheel? This is much faster.
Your suggestion hints that you may have used other editors that had the feature you want. Several users here have made suggestions for improving the Zoom feature, most notably the ability for the Playhead to stay fixed in one position while zooming. If you ever used Sony Vegas (now Magix) products you would be spoiled by the timeline zoom feature. Zoom in and out, rapidly, while the Playhead remains in a fixed position is a tremendous feature and makes editing so much faster. Here is a link to previous discussions. Playhead doesn't remain central when zooming the timeline
-=Ken=-