It's not quite that cut and dried.
One can see things that one cannot resolve. This happens all the time. A classic example is an insect in a spotlight beam at night. One sees a bright spot one pixel in size, even though the insect is far smaller than a pixel.
One can see subpixel absorbers as well, by the darkening of the pixel containing the object. This is one way astronomers detect planets around distant stars.
Joe Gwinn