Steven wrote:
People see what they expect to see.

A pilot sitting on a runway obviously wouldn't expect to see an airplane
landing on that runway.

Mike indicated that he would feel more comfortable positioning his
plane at an angle on the runway so he could look behind for landing
traffic. Since he'd be looking back specifically to look for incoming
planes he'd be unlikely to miss seeing such a plane especially if
lighting and weather conditions were favorable.

OTOH, the crew of a plane that's been cleared to land would be looking
at the runway primarily to judge their approach and might be more
likely to miss seeing another plane since they wouldn't be expecting
one there. Such a mistake would be more likely under poor visibility
conditions such as landing into a setting sun when glare from various
reflections would make objects on the ground harder to distinguish.

Such conditions could easily increase their effort to focus on viewing
the end of the runway and the numbers to judge their landing in much
the same way that viewers in the psychology perception test focussed on
the basketball passes and totally missed the presence of the gorilla.