You have never had a driver wait?
The trade off is that the pedestrian has pretty much no right of way anywhere but a crossing, and cars will drive at you (or at least not stop for you) if you try to cross somewhere that is not a crossing. Though "Jaywalking" is not a thing and you can actually cross where ever you like.
That's not true, or at least it's bad/illegal driving if they do so, a pedestrian who is 'established in the road' as the right of way anywhere.
As you said:
> Though "Jaywalking" is not a thing and you can actually cross where ever you like.
Otherwise it would be a contradiction wouldn't it? If the pedestrians allowed to be there, the motorist obviously isn't allowed to run them over, ... I suppose you could say the pedestrian can continue crossing but only after first giving way to the motorist? There'd be more time with pedestrians in the road though.
Not that I recommend using that fact to cross when you don't have time, because you will anger motorists. Or they could not see you/be paying attention. They'd be wrong, but it's just not worth it, obviously.
I know the laws surrounding cycling and pedestrians changed even recently, but no one in my experience actually cares and carries on as before.
If you are crossing a busy road, no one will stop for you. Maybe parts of the UK that are more rural are different, but in cities this is the case. You will always get across at a crossing, and cars are generally not trying to run you down. Though, Zebra crossings have started in recent times to be more problematic, and I see people driving across them whilst people are still on the crossing regularly.
Anecdote example: When I was a kid I got clipped by a car because of this (the heel of my back foot got struck by a car who was basically giving nothing and driving at me, despite me being over 50% across a road that was only 2 lanes and not particularly wide.) In North America this doesn't happen. Cars will drive at you, but they will generally stop and let you go. In the UK you are made to feel like a criminal for daring to cross a road most of the time.
It's illegal in most if not all of USA too, but no one cares in practice. Legally, even when a car driver and a pedestrian both have access to a lane separately, if both are present, then a car driver must give a full lane-width of space to a pedestrian crossing or at the corner.
Also, even when a pedestrian is committing the auto-industry-invented crime of "jaywalking", the pedestrian still has the right of way in traffic, unless it is physically impossible for the car driver to avoid the collision. Car drivers are not judge/jury/executioner.
(Nit: "Cars" don't "drive" (yet, in most places). "Car drivers" drive cars.)
"Cars driving at you" is probably a dialectical thing.