Also, the thing that makes US airports unpleasant is not necessarily the same as the irritant in other places. Travelling through the US gives us the indignity of the TSA's security theatre. But take a trip through a British airport and you really see capitalism tooth-and-nail. I think this the result of the sell-off of the airports to a dutch corporation several years ago, and the resulting dept-repayment load.
The only airport I've been in, that is actually a pleasant place to hang out for a couple of hours is CDG.
At least half of the states have at least 1 major international airport, with some having 2 or more. For example, Hawaii has Honolulu, Florida has Orlando and Miami. Nevada has McCarran, etc.
My point us that the US has lots of international entrypoints, so each airport has to be less grand than say a Hong Kong or Singapore, where that is the only airport where you can enter. For them that single airport has to be a flagship, so they put hotels and butterfly gardens, etc. Phoenix Sky Harbor will never get anything like that, so it can never compete.
My bigger annoyance with British airports is the whole "wait near the shops until it's boarding time and then we'll tell you what gate you are at". And once you move to the gate you can't access the shops anymore.
If we have 1 major airport per 10 million people (made up nuumber) and so does another country, how does that argument make sense? With a big country, economies of scale should lead to even better airports but it doesn’t.
IHMO, this is just an excuse to refuse to learn from the example of other countries, regardless of size. A country so large should be even better at doing what small countries do well. Especially showing basic human decency and humanity toward other members of their species.