Wrong. Even the ancient greek KNEW that the globe is round in every direction by a simple observation. Ships that come from behind the horizon are first spotted by their sails, later by the boat itself. So it must be travelling "a mountain". This also proves the horizon to be a certain distance due to the curvature of that "mountain" and not an endless distance.
AND it's the reason why the surrounding of the ship is always watched from the top of the mast - you can look further around that curvature.
This has nothing to do with diminishing angles. Using a Laser to prove the same is just one method to define one ray of light that can be distinguished among the others. It makes no difference whether you shine a Laser across the lake and watch its dot on the top of the sail or whether you just look at the boat from across the lake and only see this top of the sail, as the boat itself is below the horizon curvature.
Just make a graph and see for yourself. Or take the experiment in nature. You will see, it makes NO difference. Light travels both directions the same way.
People tend to think too complicated. Maybe that's one of the reasons why some dullheads nowadays think, that the spherical shape is not "proven". I't s simply because of the
Dunning-Kruger effect. They wouldn't realize a proof even if it would hit them into their face.