A 180* phase shift system either provides power or does not, meaning when any one phase hits zero volt/amps, the other phase hits zero volt/amps where as in a 3 phase system when any one phase hits zero volt/amps the other two are still supplying power at various degrees.
I know that this is elementary, but my point being that when the blue phase is at the zero crossing and is essential "dead" (no voltage or current) the red phase is heading toward its peak voltage, while the green phase is dropping from is peak. Any thing connected across red and green (like a motor winding) has current going through it and as such doing work. Same goes for a 2 phase system, when phase A is at peak, phase B is at zero of visa-veras
The distinction is clearer when you use two waveforms to run one circuit. Like when we only use the positive halves of the two waves like we do with a 2-diode full-wave rectifier. This is a circuit that makes use of the 180d difference.
Most other circuits do not utilize more than one waveform from the selection available.
When you only use one waveform, it is hard to appreciate the fact that the transformer can supply two waveforms with a 180d displacement. You could build these 180d displacements using a gen-set but why do that when the transformer can substitute?
Anyway, if you focus on the positive halves of the waveforms, you can see the work is done with a 180d displacement. An example would be the charging of a VFD using the positive pulses produced 180d apart.
Again, we could provide these 180d positive pulses from a set of two 180d displaced voltages using a common generator shaft with 180d displaced windings but one should be able to recognize that the center-tapped transformer can also supply this set of voltages.
Until you can step back and recognize that multiple sets can ultimately map to the same physical space, it is hard to see that they lay on top of each other but still exist.
As an example of looking beyond what may appear on the surface, you may or may not be aware of n-th roots. Just because you found one solution to an equation does not mean you found them all.