I agree, and an interesting corollary is that as details increase, the apparent AI level decreases. The monsters in Doom (the original) felt more intelligent to me than opponents in modern games.

I guess it's similar to how the vision interpolates in the blind spot -- the brain is really good at making this information up if it's convinced it's being served low-resolution material. The ghosts in Pacman seem convincing because they move around more or less like you do.