I even notice this in mediterranean vs nordic engineering. Italian cars are known for looking good and not lasting very long, generally. They also apparently have a lot of bridges collapse. I accredit this to the hot weather leading to a laid-back attitude. Meanwhile if you go north they have the Netherlands and Sweden where they really think things through much better generally (volvo, levy systems) And if you go south they don’t have cars or bridges and shit in their water supply. America is a mix of the former 2