Yes, absolutely! There is definitely a difference between knowing something abstractly, via words or diagrams, and seeing or experiencing it physically. A similar example for me is spending hours reading about a particular Roman city and seeing 2D plans of it versus going there in person and suddenly being like "Oh, I see why it's that shape! It's because it fits perfectly into the plateau it's occupying." Very few plans of Roman cities include contours, and even when they do it can't compare to standing there in the actual landscape