Can we use "if it weren't for" and "if it hadn't been for" interchangeably?

tenses grammar syntactic-analysis

The difference between these two phrases is the same as any other two sentences: one in past tense, other in past perfect. I’ll give you two examples to show you the difference:

  1. Let’s say I’m regretting something right now: If it weren’t for the wrecked peasants, I could have a better life now.

  2. Suppose I’m talking about something in the past: If it hadn’t been for the wrecked peasants, I could have had a better life then.

Related

Comma before and [duplicate]
Expand/Collapse Lollipop toolbar animation (Telegram app)
Backbone.js : repopulate or recreate the view?
Rotating x,y points 45 degrees
Existence and uniqueness of Stokes flow
Evaluate ${\int_0^\infty e^{-t} \log(\cos^2 t)}\,\mathrm dt$
Proving a set in $\mathbb{Q}$ that is bounded above to have no largest number (greatest element)
Why do we need the Hahn-Banach Theorem to extend a bounded linear functional?
Example of $\sigma$-algebra
How find this sum $\sum_{ab+cd=2^m}ac=?$
Evaluating $\int_{0}^{1}\frac{\arcsin{\sqrt{x}}}{x^4-2x^3+2x^2-x+1}\operatorname d\!x$
The use of conjugacy class and centralizer?