Under normal living-room conditions, you need a side-by-size comparison to tell 720p from 1080p. Anything more is just a gimmick.
Your doctor called - You're booked for next Tuesday for your Cataract Surgery.
Seriously though, Mt better half used to have the same opinion you do, and yes, on her next visit to th optometrist, they told her she'd be having cataract surgery soon. Now? She very well knows the difference between the formats. As in "Oh wow" 480 to 720p, an "Geeze wow" 720p to1080p.
There are more bullshit myths about HDTV ever since the days when the get off my lawn crowd were telling us that you couldn't see the difference between HDTV and NTSC.