Nope.
Try this...get your hands on a laptop with a 1900x1200 screen, and one with a 1280x800 screen, and download an HDTV movie in 1080p from bit torrents.
Watch the two side by side, and tell me if you can see a difference. Or better yet, jus look at a jpg image at those two resolutions and see if you can tell a difference. That is...take the same jpg from some digital camera that's at like a ridiculous resolution like 2000 something x 1500 or so, then view the image on both a super high res screen and a normal res screen, and see if you can honestly and instantly spot the difference.
You probably can when you stare at both for a few minutes, but when you're watching tv, you don't stare at a paused image that long unless you're some sort of fanatic.
High res is high res, and 720p isn't that much different than 1080i, at least to the human eye (except of course for the flickering).
You CAN tell the differenece if you try really hard...I just don't think you can in the normal course of watching TV...in other words, if you're watching a show in 1080i on a tv that can handle it, and after commercial the show switches to 720p, you probably won't notice it, except the image will appear smoother and less flickery.