Wise words IO. When I had my single seater homebuilt I had exactly the same philosophy about the circuit, especially coming back in - the view out past the cowling was pretty restricted and the landing could be "exciting." Had to fly a consistent circuit with a curved approach starting from 500ft downwind with the aileron hinge line on the runway to have any hope of success - if the circuit had more than two aircraft in it I went away and came back later.
Nearest miss was tootling along in a PA28 with the LHS pilot on instruments. I saw her flinch and we heard the roar. An F15E passed directly over the top of us with about 100ft separation on exactly the same heading. We were in his blind spot and he was in ours. We never saw a wingman.
Just as well we were slightly low. (Her IF is much better now - she's a 50 seat turboprop Captain)