Some cays are definitely a bit higher on the brain utilization. My close relatives and I have seen cats ask for things, specifically do things they know piss you off in front of you, learn and play fetch, tattle on humans, attack door-to-door salesmen that were getting too pushy, and use a mirror to examine themselves. There’s also stories of cats that got help from several miles away, woke up their humans when a fire started, chased bears off, comforted the dying specifically in their last week, and more than one that could rather reliably smell cancer.
And then there are those cats that are surprised when their whiskers are still there! XD
In my experience (which is anecdotal at best), cats can express wildly different levels of intelligence between even littermates, and especially between people interacting with them. Just because you failed to negotiate with them doesn’t mean they’re incapable of doing what you want them to.
Psychology is notoriously difficult to draw conclusions from because it’s so hard to isolate the variables. It’s cool to learn some less mainstream science though!