Does it give you a better vantage point of ice patches/road hazards, a parked car pulling into traffic, or a car door opening into the bike lane? I'm not worried about somebody pulling into traffic a block away from me. I'm worried about the one a few feet away.

The line of sight may be marginally higher, but I don't know that that is always better. In any case, I feel like I'm up pretty high on my road bike. Even in the drops my head is up higher than the heads of people in cars (though not SUVs).