On the flip side, "recommended specs" also have the tendency to mean "just enough to work with some settings set to minimum".
Absolutely!... I rarely buy games nowdays, infact the last "big title" I bought was Doom3... according to the box my system should have eaten it!... but when I got it home it ran like a slug on downers!... even on minimum detail/resolution!
It makes ya wonder exactly what kind of systems they use to develop high-end games... and how they determine the min/max system requirements that us mere mortals might be using at the time of release.