Just remember, there are a lot of retards out hiking in the Badlands every year and I can't recall ever hearing of anyone who has died in ND from a prairie rattler bite. Or even just getting bitten, for that matter.
Rattlers are certainly out there, and when I elk hunted by myself I did wear snake proof gators. Not only for the same reasons you listed, but mostly because when I hunt I am not always looking where I put my foot down.
Long story - short story, I was out bowhunting alone once and stepped on a rattlesnake skeleton at the same moment as a prickly pear cactus hit my calf. All I could see was the rattle sticking out from under my boot and thought for sure I had gotten bit. Oddly enough, at the same time I could see my pickup sitting up high on another butte (about and hour and a half hike away). My heart stopped for a brief moment until I saw the cactus and skeleton.
Bottom line for me, if I am hunting alone in what I know to be a rattler infested area, I will wear my snake gators. But just out hiking I don't because I pay better attention to where I put my foot down.
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Note: That was in the days before I carried a cell phone. While there's still plenty of the badlands with poor reception, even if a person got bit today you would always be able to hike up high enough to get cell reception after getting bitten if you needed to.
