This is true, however no one stands at the same distance from the subject when using a 50mm lens on a 1.6 body. They stand further away thus hiding the distortions better. The puppy dog above would look more normal is the camera was further away.

pcunite, yes, you might be true with the dog. But when people take a picture of a building or a street scene (or even a portrait) they tend to fill the frame with the subject as much as possible, which makes the distortions very strong - not the as if you would do it with the normal or telephoto lens (instead of the wide angle). Thus just beware of the distortions.