Not necessarily. One example would be to make a view of an eyeglass. One cel would be "empty", 26 would contain letters of the alphabet (if English letter set), as well as the numerals 0-9. Get the position of the ego object, and if the ego is in a particular position on screen, then a letter or number or empty space will be displayed in the magnifying glass. Thusly, secret messages could be hidden on screen. If your ego was a magnifying glass in the entire game (As in a Myst-type first person adventure, or Manhunter, then you could devote more views of the eyeglass with different objects. Make sure to set never_animate_ego!
Before I'd assign more than just basic numbers and letters to the eyeglass view, I'd have clicking with the eyeglass on a particular spot to go to a different close-up scene, much like Gabriel Knight.
Finally, I think it would be most successful as a synthesis of the two.
