Uniformity in apartment design is very common in Europe too. The smaller the apartment, the more likely it is to have a generic or standardised layout. This is regardless of whether the housing development is "architect designed" or marketed by a volume housebuilder without an architect's name. And regardless of the cost of the apartment too. If you compare a one bedroom flat in the outer suburbs of London, with a high-priced flat in central London, it's highly likely that both flats will have the same standard layout.

Obviously, size affects layout - the more space you have to design with, the greater the layout possibilities. But even small one bedroom apartments can have a wide variety of layouts. You have to look to historical examples for that variety though. New one (and often two) bedroom apartments often have a very uniform design.

For example, the most common template for one bedroom flats in London is usually the combined kitchen/living room (kitchen always at the back of the living room away from the windows) and a windowless bathroom at the back of the flat usually behind the bedroom.

If you search for new build, one bedroom apartments in other European countries like Germany or Sweden, you find a similar bog-standard layout. A bit disappointing.

There is nothing wrong with generic or standardised layouts if they are of a good design. But I've always considered these common combined kitchen/living floor plans to be mediocre in design (but obviously convenient for the housebuilder).