It's not just me, John. Pocket bikelanes where merited is the official roadway guidance of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials, the Federal Highway Administration, many state transportation agencies and the National Association of City Transportation Officials.

Lets' see what NACTO has to say about these types of intersections treatments...
NACTO guidelines for bikelanes at significant intersections

NACTO sez..... the benefits are:

Enables bicyclists to correctly position themselves to the left of right turn lanes or to the right of left turn lanes.

Reduces conflicts between turning motorists and bicycle through traffic.

Provides bicyclists with guidance to follow the preferred travel path.

Leads to more predictable bicyclist and motorist travel movements.

Alerts motorists to expect and yield to merging bicycle traffic.

Signifies an appropriate location for motorists to safely merge across the bike lane into the turn lane.

a broad overview of this type of roadway bike infrastructure




Rider experiences and design guidance is quite clear that this type of road design brings benefits to bicyclists. It's too bad the Dutch guy doesn't recognize this type of road design is quite apropos on many a North American roadway when there's limited space or too few solutions to providing more robust infrastructure. These road designs happen to be working well as regards to bicyclist safety.

North America has got a long way to go towards reclaiming the bicycle as everyday transportation, thats for sure.