I think it's a metaphor thing. Like, in writing, if you say "The shadow of a lamppost lay on the ground like a spear. He walked and it pierced him like a spear." What more description of the scene do you need than that? In fact, talking about the color of the path or what kind of trousers our character was wearing would be counterproductive to the quality of the writing.

One could view sloppiness in art in the same way - use of metaphor that captures the scene without the need for detail.

And no, of course it's not a biological limit.