That's relatively new, but I was glad when they changed it. To be clear, it's not "outside the US", that's Canada -- the point is that prices are now listed in local currency, including in the US.

Back to the point: while I'm pretty comfortable with translating Canadian dollars, British Pounds, or Euros to US dollars, that's about as much as I can do in my head. I'm much happier seeing ~US$1.17 than ¥99, and I'm much more likely to buy the app.

So while I can see your point, I think it was definitely a change for the better, and it probably resulted in increased sales.