What's the difference between exceptional service and bare minimum service?

I was thinking about what exceptional service meant to me and besides some sort of food acrobatic performance with comedy like at a tepan restaurant I feel like every thing else is the bare minimum. Timely order taking and food delivery, menu knowledge, politeness, accuracy, these all seem basic as fvck, C level work.

If we're tipping for exceptional service, what even is that? I generally tip the obligatory 20%(on the very rare occasion I eat out--becomeing even rarer) but I would rate my typical service as a D-, with things like slow service, cold food (especially fries) unannounced substitution charges, unawareness of drink prices, etc.