Oh no doubt that it is, but games artists have made pretty convincing imitations of it for so long now that to see a real difference would require removing all

Oh no doubt that it is, but games artists have made pretty convincing imitations of it for so long now that to see a real difference would require removing all the previously bespoke baked-in details. I'm sure artists are simultaneously relieved and saddened by this. However, nothing will be the step up that bumpmapping brought to the table. Doom 3's textures look like garbage with that disabled, due to the bump/normalmapped greebles all over them. Everything looks like clay or cardboard.