Right, and one piece is normally to reinforce that feeling by selecting crossings that actually DO get pedestrian traffic (normally 20 / hour for any one hour or at least 60 over some combination of 4 potentially non consecutive hours).

What happens when you splatter crosswalk everywhere is they lose some of their subconscious meaning because you de-link them from actual pedestrian use potentially.

I think that's fair, especially if there are some other indicators in addition to just the paint.

In Cambridge MA there are some otherwise uncontrolled crosswalks across Mass Ave and, as a driver, I'm definitely a bit more prepared for there to be a pedestrian at that location compared to darting across a random stretch of busy road (though that happens too all the time and I keep my eyes out). That said, as a pedestrian, I don't really trust a driver to see me especially in lower visibility so I generally won't cross at those locations unless I have plenty of opening.