MM,
What you are forgetting is that there are 7 or 8 times more golf courses in the US than in the UK. We have wonderful, lightly maintained, very earthy, challenging courses right on up to the full-blown cart tracks that you so despise.
We have courses that play firm and fast and courses that play soggy. We have something like 12 weather zones, you have 2 or 3.
We have courses that are being recognized ( and well ranked) not only for their wonderful architecture, but because their gearing themselves to play as neatly as the best seaside courses in your neck of the woods.
We have courses where the culture is mostly walking, we have courses where most players ride.
We have 26 million different souls playing the game in this country, of course it's going to evolve with some aberrations (if you were an archaeologist you'd see that in your digs).
We have the world's largest golf business in this country and it may encompass much that you dislike, but we also have a golf culture that prefers something else. The former is more prevalent, the latter has an ever increasing number of players joining it every year and that's mainly due to the incredibly good information networks that exist here.
So Mel, you keep plugging away, and if you ever understand that you can attract more bees with honey you'll end up doing more good in the long run.