Well said. I think a person on a bicycle can help drivers notice him/her by looking as wide and bright as possible at a glance. I have white buckets mounted on my rear rack with red/white retroreflective safety tape all over them, which seems to help. If a driver is only processing unexpected objects in broad terms and catches sight of an object that looks big enough to ruin their day, it might get bumped up to a higher level of attention. At least that's consistent with how I process information behind the wheel.

I can accept that they were too focused on the road and themselves to pay attention to anything but cars and traffic controls, but I don't consider that in any way a legitimate excuse for not maintaining an adequate lookout. There's too much driver complacency about safety. People need to stay sharp when they have the power to end someone's life in a second. A motor vehicle at speed is too much power to get sloppy with.