Your point was that SE is unable to add reflections to water because there are a lot of characters on-screen. #1, water doesn't have to reflect characters. Reflect world is fine. #2, adding an option to correct shading in the game will simply allow people who have a rich-man's graphics card the ability to look at a game that doesn't look like it was made 10 years ago. #3, adding reflections and adding real shading will not tax the system as much as ambient occlusion does, and it will make the game look much better and lifelike.

The technology is widely available. There is no excuse as to why it would not be added even as an option, when Ambient Occlusion (a more recent video-game tech) is an option.