I agree with you to some extent - my own experience is with rental units. Our flat had very high ceilings and I felt the radiators were too small for the rooms. We lived in front of the fireplace in the living room, and I dragged an oil filled radiator with me from room to room when I needed to be warm!
We're now in a rental house. Lower ceilings. The living room, the bedroom and the bathroom (oh, heavenly!) stay comfortably warm. The kitchen is drafty, the radiator in the hall doesn't work properly, so those 2 areas are cold! The other 2 bedrooms we don't care about, we don't use them.
The houses I've been in that are owned by the people who live in them - two in-law families, an uncle and a friend - don't seem to have cold spots anywhere when we're there. I'd think that they're cranking the heat up for us, but I know this is the way my parents-in-law's house is...
I'm still more comfy than I was in my non-centrally heated (or air conditioned!) house in Wisconsin though!