There is no single set of "best" settings that works in all situations. That has always been true. But I'm particularly surprised at the settings that you arrived at as being recommended because the AA value is relatively low, and an uneven number at that (even numbers, especially Powers of Two, are more recommended), and the micropoly detail is relatively high. I'm curious where those values came from.
In any case I think a good way to approach this is to have a sort of "baseline" of values you start with, and then adjust higher (or lower, if possible, to save render time) based on how the results look. So for that I would suggest Micropoly Detail of 0.6, AA of 8, as your *starting* point. AA is more important when there are lots of plant models, especially those with fine details like grasses and shrubs; it's a bit less important with most trees (broad-leafed).
It's also possible that you just added a lot of sharpening in post processing, which accentuated any issues from the lower antialiasing.
- Oshyan