Seems possible, especially considering that there is a way to bring these same shading artifacts in Eevee - I did that just by plugging the normal map into an AO node and looking at the isolated diffuse color render pass I have a sneaking suspicion that the AO node may be utilizing Cycles for its raytracing (I doubt that…
Yeah, the crux of the issue is that a normal map can fake shading, but it can't fake the actual geometry, which is used for shadowing. For best results, the normal map should be used to represent fine detail that doesn't affect the silhouette, while the primary forms should be represented in the low poly. Of course, you'll…