I agree, that's always been the most likely explanation to me as well. You can see this phenomena with many things... I was at a concert and saw loudspeakers o

I agree, that's always been the most likely explanation to me as well. You can see this phenomena with many things... I was at a concert and saw loudspeakers on the top of some poles. I immediately associated them with shelf speakers, and my brain told me they couldn't be more than a foot tall. Then later I saw a worker climbing the pole to do maintenance and realized each speaker box was taller than he was. I've also noticed this illusion in the city. There's a particular street that has a hill. As you drive up this hill, the top of a skyscraper is framed by the road and trees nearby, and it looks absolutely massive. Then you crest the hill and see the entire thing (along with the rest of the buildings downtown) and they look so much smaller and distant. It's really striking.