Yes, this is interesting. The differences are pretty big. The pictures help me appreciate the flip side of the coin.
Compare that last agave from Sweden to this plant in the ground.... both are from the same group, perhaps the same species, but the posture is quite different. Toward the back (along the top in the picture) you can see a few leaves that were under the cover of an invading plant until a few days ago, and were starting to stretch as a consequence of that protection.