I believe that we have far too many stoplights anyway. I don't have data to support this but intuitively stop signs seem safer to me. The problem with lights is that they encourage dangerous driving behavior and increase the likelihood of high speed collisions relative to stop signs. Not only are crashes causing immense harm both to property and people, nothing messes up traffic worse than a crash. My intuition is that more stop signs relative to stop lights would lower best case arrival times but that median arrival times would be comparable (and possibly even superior) in dense environments.
Also, it's worth noting that stoplights guarantee increased car idling in many situations relative to stop signs. How many times have you been pointlessly sitting at a light when there was no cross traffic?
The situation could be further improved with low speed yield signs at visually clear crossings (in other words, you wouldn't have to stop but you would be required to slow down and would be held liable for striking another road user that entered the intersection before you). Cameras could be used to enforce this.
I don't think your intuition is correct. Traffic lights let civil engineers tune priority and allow greater throughput at an intersection.
Just like how we consume large amounts of space for interchanges on interstates instead of using traffic lights, there's a reason we don't see stop signs (at least, not often) on 45+mph roads.
On Maryland Route 216 starting at the interchange just east of US 29 and going west through Fulton to Westside Blvd, there are four round-abouts within a distance of 0.8 miles. It feels like there are more, maybe because they're so rare otherwise.
Also, it's worth noting that stoplights guarantee increased car idling in many situations relative to stop signs. How many times have you been pointlessly sitting at a light when there was no cross traffic?
The situation could be further improved with low speed yield signs at visually clear crossings (in other words, you wouldn't have to stop but you would be required to slow down and would be held liable for striking another road user that entered the intersection before you). Cameras could be used to enforce this.