Nobody else’s actions absolve Williams from being an a-hole who thinks he’s a big hot shot but would get shot out the back of the pro peloton in a heartbeat.
Regarding Philipson and WVA - yes, Philipson is a bit wild. In that particular incident the barriers narrowed on Wout as Philipson came in. The course design was crap. And there was no contact just, good old fashioned shutting the door on another rider combined with bad course design (they were sprinting through an S-turn).
And I’ve never seen a rider in the world tour intentionally try to run another rider off the road at a random corner during the race. (I’m not saying it hasn’t happened.)