I grew up in the country and spent a lot of time riding my bike back and forth to town, and even back then I road against the flow of traffic for exactly that reason- so I could see what was coming. I think doing so helped others to decide to move over, even if it was just a little bit. There was no shoulder, and but I still stayed as far as possible out off the lane of traffic.
I HATED riding with traffic because there were always those who seemed to want to intentionally get close.
Fast forward to today.
I spend a LOT of time behind the wheel. Every day I see people get over on the shoulder or into the other lane because they are messing with their phone. If I was to be on a bicycle these days I would absolutely ride against traffic just in self defense. But I'd also stay as far off the road as possible.