It has always been the case for me, no exaggeration. If it was not the case there would have been a time when I was not able to make a left turn on a road without bike lanes and that has never happened. The logic also supports my statement as when one is in a shared lane motorists already have to respond to the cyclist in front of them.
On bike lanes roads I have had cases where no one would respond in a timely manner to my insistent signalling and looking back. The way I deal with this is by leaving the bike lane, getting a bit left of the stripe and then I have forced lane sharing and I get a response. But I despise being aggressive (forcing motorist to deal with me) like that and prefer the assertive (working cooperatively with motorist) merge instead.