Semi-gloss is noticeably shiny, but it is not the shiniest paint finish available, it sits in the upper-middle of the sheen scale. To understand its shine, you need to know the typical sheen hierarchy from least to most shiny: flat or matte, eggshell, satin, semi-gloss, and high-gloss. Semi-gloss reflects a significant amount of light, giving surfaces a sleek, polished, slightly reflective look that you can easily see, especially when light hits it at an angle. It is much shinier than satin or eggshell, which have only a soft glow, but it is less mirror-like than high-gloss, which looks almost like glass or enamel. That moderate high shine is why semi-gloss is popular for highlighting architectural details, but it also means it will highlight imperfections, brush strokes, dents, and uneven drywall because the reflective surface shows everything. So yes, semi-gloss is quite shiny and easy to spot, but it is not as extremely shiny as gloss or high-gloss paint.
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