good point Throbert

tentatively i can assume that your principle applies to natural acts expressed by intransitive verbs like смотреть, слышать, слушать, сидеть, стоять, есть, пить however transitive verbs like читать, мучать also falls here although it's transitive

by the way you absolutely can say находиться in a sense of "to walk till one is exhausted", which only supports my assumption that the principle has to do with natural human activities

at the same time offhand there're such verbs as наговориться and надуматься (rare but legit), two cut down forms of which still make sense
наговорить, говорить
надумать, думать