I believe it is the Windows. Since SMAA is a documented method, if the application methid or the results were changed than the name would change, too. Because it would be another AA method, just like FXAA.
In Windows 7, LOD values were changeable by the driver (sometimes by the user, too) and mostly set to 0. In Windows 8+ versions and in newer games it is unchangeable, even some Nvidia settings make it look like changeable, the buttons are disfunctional. Most of the time LOD values are negative, both game developers and GPU companies like to force it. Since negative LOD gives better texture quality it compliments the game, and since negative LOD increases aliasing it forces us to use higher resolutions, thus driving us into buying better monitors and GPUs. That's why 4K is an aggressive marketing material even though it is not preferred widely.
And since they started to see that it was not working, the competition introduced temporal super sampling AA in newer titles. The old ones, however, will be suffered from the heavy aliasing issues forever
As for SMAA, in GTA V, I can get the same results with the demonstrated pictures with Reshade SMAA. All the big object geometries are fixed with perfect anti aliasing, including very thin things like branches, as long as the overall scene has enough brightness. In darker scenes SMAA is weaker, applying FXAA on top helps. What is not fixed is motion aliasing. It can only be slightly reduced, texture aliasing of negative LOD is too high for post processing Anti-aliasing.
Edit: for a game like GTA V, I use 1440p on a 1080p monitor, and add
SMAA = 0.50 - 24 - 12 - 50
FXAA = 0.5 -.0.125 - 0.0625
Gaussianblur =2 - 0.5 - 0.5
Lumasharpen = 1.75 - 0.35 - pyramid - 1.5
Reshade part only takes away 12-15 fps but it's tolerable only that way.