When SEF is disabled, you will see the parameters ctrl and task in the URLs of your website. ctrl defines the "view" and task defines the "file".
However, in joomla, views can load other views.
On the products listing view file, you will have that code:
$html = $this->loadTemplate($layout_type);
which loads the products listing based on the layout you selected in the products listing menu/module.
If you select "div", it will be the listing_div file which will be loaded.
Then, in that view file, you will see that line:
echo $this->loadTemplate();
it is called for each product in order to display the product's area. in the listing. By default it will be listing_img_title which correspond to the selection you made in the item box layout page option of products listing menus/modules.
Also, make sure that you're editing the view file for the correct joomla template, and not another template you don't use. Otherwise, you won't see any changes.