> who will approach a 4-way intersection and stop even when they don't have a stop sign and the perpendicular street does

Not the main point but I never liked how traffic signs aren't affirmative sometimes. In the case of the 4-way usually the stopping direction have a stop sign with a missing "All Way" sign below it. But thats not required in all jurisdictions. Nor is the non-stopping direction 100% sure their stop sign is still visible (shrubs, weather, etc) and can proceed at regular speed.

I'm sure there are a ton of reasons for the way things are, I just think the outcome is you can't really ever be 100% sure what the correct thing to do is without slowing down and observing.