That is very interesting. I wonder if this also applies to rendering plugins? I had this issue yesterday while showing elevation renderings vs. perspective to a client. My model had a brick texture, and Sketchup colors representing Sherwin Williams paint colors. There was a marked difference between the paint colors, but the brick texture was the same. I didn't know it was a Sketchup material thing, I just thought it was the difference between the sun angle between the perspective and parallel views.
If I have time (funny!) it would be neat to apply a texture of the spec'd paint colors and rerender, just to see.