Disagree entirely. First of all, a pool noodle isn’t any shinier than anything else on a bicycle. Secondly, the first time I saw this my first thought was, “That’s brilliant.”
Why? Because as a bicyclist and motorcyclist, one of the challenges we face in a shared road environment is making ourselves appear larger than we actually are so vehicles don’t take unsafe liberties in trying to sneak by us in the same lane we’re in. Sometimes there’s room for that, sometimes there is not. Road racing taught me a lot about riding, including learning how to make myself appear larger on the track than I actually was by using lane position and riding line. As a defensive ploy this is something I’m guessing all racers learn how to do to some degree at least.
And it translates directly to street riding, where we’re so vulnerable on two wheels to multi-ton vehicles we share the road with. The pool noodle is brilliant because it creates the illusion of size, forcing others to give the cyclist the leeway they are legally entitled to, but that is often compromised by careless drivers.
(As for those of you complaining about the strobing headlight on bicycles, I take it none of you has or is in favor of Moto headlight modulators, right?)