Not your imagination. The fluorescent tubes are long. The light comes from a large area rather than more of a "point source" as you get with the much smaller incandescent bulb.
This reduces shadows tremendously.
Think about two scenarios:
A sunny cloudless day, and a totally overcast day.
On the cloudless, sunny day, you will cast a distinct shadow because the light is coming from an almost perfect point source. The "rays" of light are almost perfectly parallel to each other as they reach the earth. So other than the diffraction that happens at the very edges of you (or anything else casting a shadow), the light is almost totally blocked by your body, so the shadow is sharp and distinct.
But on a day with heavy cloud cover, the sun's light does not reach the earth directly. It is diffused and re-radiated by the clouds. So the light reaching the earth is coming from the entire sky very uniformly. The clouds are now the light source, and they're everywhere.
So you don't cast any visible shadow at all.
The long fluorescent tubes are like this, sending light out from their entire length. This makes working under the fluorescents much nicer for many tasks, because you don't cast a distinct shadow that can often end up being right where you're trying to work, or look.
Doing drafting, or crafts, or assembly work, it is really nice to have smooth lighting coming from a variety of directions, as if working outside on a cloudy day.
It's the same for photography. You'll see photographers aiming their flash units up to bounce off of the ceiling, or using a flash "umbrella" or a diffuser or soft-box to get away from the point-source of the bare, direct flash which will cast sharp, distinct, annoying shadows. The larger the effective light source is, with respect to the subject, the smoother the lighting will be.
Diffuse light is often very desirable.