And really, there's even a huge difference between Avatar and a film like Up. On 3D animated films, there's still someone (well, usually a team of two) that acts in almost exactly the traditional way of a cinematographer. They set the lighting, focus, angles, lenses, aperture, everything. I would rather see that win best cinematography than Avatar, a film in which you can just point a camera in the right direction, then have someone else make it look good in post.
Also, regardless of whether it's the same or not, the images on screen in both The White Ribbon and Inglorious Basterds were leagues better.