As a Dutch person, I experience exactly this dilemma: ringing the bell feels like telling people to get out of the way, when often there is plenty of space for me to pass through, but I know that there's a significant chance that they're going to veer into my way if they don't know I'm coming.

Of course, ringing my bell will often cause people to veer into the way, too. But then if you ring at a sufficient distance, you risk them not hearing it. Except there's no way to tell if they're not hearing it, or just consciously not veering into the way, and in the latter case, you don't want to ring again, because that will sound even more impatient.

Etiquette is hard.

(And yes, I want cars to have a bicycle bell too, so they can greet people without jump-scaring me.)

I used to slightly pull & quickly release a brake lever that made a less-annoying and less-loud "clack" noise when I wanted to be noticed but not to be annoying, generally when I knew I had no right of way but wanted to politely ask for a way around a group of people who hadn't noticed me yet.