Wet-heat cooking intensity vs. time
Not sure I understood your question correctly.

Yes there are differences. 
1)soups and stocks. If you boil a chicken soup in will end up cloudy. If you simmer it will be clear. 

2)rice. The proper way to make rice is to get it up to heat then cook covered on low heat. If you were to boil, the outsides would be destroyed/mushy and the insides would still be hard. 
I'm sure there are many other examples