It is true. I'm using APM as a shorthand, here, for mechanical aptitude. Yes, the APM, in terms of raw numbers, was constrained. But the computer used its APM

It is true. I'm using APM as a shorthand, here, for mechanical aptitude. Yes, the APM, in terms of raw numbers, was constrained. But the computer used its APM in a completely different way, one which players could not possibly replicate. One obvious example: the AI doesn't use control groups. To anyone who's played Starcraft in a somewhat competitive fashion, that's a HUGE tell. Because the implication there, is that the AI doesn't need to make control groups, because it can just arbitrarily select whatever subset of units it wants to control, whenever it wants. Humans can't do that. IIRC, the AI also tended to 'burst' its APM in the middle of fights. That's the opposite as what happens with human players. Human players often have higher APM outside of fights, when they're doing repetitive, simplistic actions (e.g. Zerg players slamming the "make lings" or "make drones" hotkeys on all hatches simultaneously) and/or spamming to keep up a rhythm. When they go into a fight, where they don't want to waste time on spamming and where commands to improve their position are less obvious, they actually tend to slow down.