it is a 100% defined way of filtering (the box filtering, that is).
because of that, the optimisation ati presents is 100% working, or not working. it is algorithmically and statistically profable how good, or bad, compared to basic trilinear filtering it works. if you want trilinear, no mather how good or bad THAT is, you can force it, by setting it up yourself. if you don't set it up yourself its up to dx, opengl, and the driver, on what to do (and always was, and always will be). they can do what ever they want (colour reductions on textures are another stated example by me wich get done).
if you don't specify exactly what you want, you get simply the best you can expect done by the driver developers. trilinear, btw, is (by FAR) NOT best. (that is why we today often have a combination of high count anysotropic + trilinear).
bether filters are normally more expensive. in case of atis work here, not. it's just the best filter ati presents you, if you don't care yourself, and present them standart mipmaps. if you have some special mipmaps, ati doesn't understand, and falls back to generic trilinear.
is it really that difficult to grasp?