Not necessarily. In some regions cyclists are legally allowed to treat a stop sign as a yield sign.

This sounds like an incredibly bad idea. This pushes even more responsibility onto the person operating several thousand pounds of metal, assuming they will make the correct snap judgement when a bike they didn't see rides out in front of them.

It seems to me the bike riders have a lot more to lose at that stop sign than any car driver who doesn't see the bike.

This is getting further off-topic, but I generally treat stop signs as a yield when I'm riding. I approach slowly and if there is a car stopped/nearing the intersection, I will absolutely yield to them as I would in a car. The only difference is that, if possible, I will try to avoid wasting energy by stopping entirely.

This is both for my own benefit and for those who may come after me. If I can maintain some of my kinetic energy, I can be out of the way much faster for the next person in line.

I sometimes treat red lights as stop signs for the same reason. If I continue through the light safely, the people behind me will be less annoyed (and therefore less aggressive) about waiting for me to accelerate. Not everything cyclists do is simply because fuck cars.

I do the same thing. One thing I'm careful about now though is always slowing down in acknowledgement of the stop sign, even if there's no one in the other directions. I started doing that after I noticed bikers bringing cars along with them when pedaling through a stop (presumably because the cars didn't notice the stop).

If it's a yield sign, then the biker should be going slowly enough that they can stop quickly upon seeing a car.

You don't go full speed through a yield sign in a car, and you don't on a bike either.

That law also applies only in Idaho.

No it doesn't. Yield sign has a meaning, and it's not go through oblivious to surroundings at full speed. It is slow down and make sure it's clear. If it's not clear, it means stop.

The biggest thing I lose stopping at a stop sign is momentum. Accelerating from zero is much more difficult than to keep going at 10km/h. For everything else, I have my eyes.

Greatest law on earth. Saves me so much time every single day. I have to pass down my street which has 15+ stop signs just to get to the main intersection.