I'm saying it because I've actually read the spec. The spec

https://drafts.csswg.org/css-images/#the-image-rendering

says

> pixelated:

> The image is scaled in a way that preserves the pixelated nature of the original as much as possible, but allows minor smoothing instead of awkward distortion when necessary.

The spec does not say "use nearest neighbor". In fact in specifically allows not using nearest neighbor (end of first sentence). And further, it doesn't specify the algorithm used.

So there is no true definition of what you'll get. There is only a general definition of the intent.