it is indeed true, have a look here (Mr Ha was just a former University professor who decided to downshift to running a fish farm, and ended up befriending feral cats)

https://www.youtube.com/@hahahaYouTube

I only want them to decide they want nothing to do with me but still with the disgusting attempts to lick me. Ew.

I think people very often assume that all dogs love every human being they come across, if not instantly, then after they've had a little sniff, when obviously that's not true. I have two rescue galgos (aka spanish greyhounds) and they are quite fearful of people in general, and so far haven't really grown to like any friend or relative etc of ours (we've had them for about three years now). Entirely possible that they will be aloof at best towards strangers for the rest of their lives. Before these two, I had a smooth collie and she was also often pretty meh about people. Particularly if you were rude with your introductions, which people quite often are with dogs too imo. Most of them just tolerate it with no obvious complaints because they do love humans

As a child visiting my friend Jay, I would sometimes crouch down and say hi (from a respectful distance obvs) to their skittish Siamese, and she would come over and get a quick pet, and then I would stand up to find the whole family staring at me in disbelief, because she did nothing but terrorize them. "What do you DO to this poor cat?" "Nothing! We LOVE the cat! She HATES us!"