Not trying to be offensive, no one, but how much time have you actually spent flying in and out of non-controlled aerodromes?
My experience may be atypical, but I have:
Typical or atypical, your experience isn't universal. If there is no other traffic it doesn't matter what you do but there are uncontrolled airfields with significant traffic i.e. less than 3 aircraft in the circuit is a quiet time.
- never joined crosswind when a high performance aircraft happened to be taking off at the same time
Not taking off, but I have had a close encounter with a twin practising an asymmetric go around when I was joining crosswind. They were too busy with the go around to do a radio call after turning base.
- never *arrived* at a height greater than 1,500' above the aerodrome (unless my TOPD and descent calculations and management have been inaccurate and poor ... )
I now routinely arrive at 2000 AGL if overflying, because:
1) I don't trust the students (or others) in the circuit to always maintain 1000 AGL and,
2) We will apparently now have high performance aircraft doing 1500' circuits because they were having trouble fitting in with the 1000' traffic
- never joined downwind or dead side when an aircraft happened to be departing overhead.
On one occasion as I was approaching the airport there were 2 aircraft on downwind, one on base, one climbing overhead for departure and 2 descending on the dead side. It is routine here to have multiple aircraft inbound/descending on the dead side and/or climbing for an overhead departure.
There's lots and lots of nothing going on out there at non-controlled aerodromes, punctuated by the occasional flurry of entirely mundane and easily manageable activity.
At many or most non controlled airfields, yes. But not all.