Kinda. Metaphors don't have to be perfect to illustrate the point. The point is that having the higher bonus is unnecessary, but a lot of people have psyched themselves into thinking it is.
I'd rather have cool and fun feats than strive to get to 18 or 20 in my prime ability. The only reason my wizard hit 18 int during my last time playing was that I rolled a 16 and he got +1 for race. One of the feats that I wanted also gave +1 int, so he ended up with 18. That was at 4th level. At 12th level he still have an 18.
I think I said I reached 11th in a prior thread, but we hit 12th and all picked telepathic as a group, because it made sense for the campaign.