Sure, experience from SARS plays a role, too. But ignoring the emphasis of individual freedom and federal government structures and blaming leadership is a huge oversight.
Adult citizens should be mature and responsible in light of a crisis. The opposite is the case and the irrational hoarding of irrelevant goods (see the TP crisis) is a symptom of that.
The fact of the matter is that many European countries simply don't have the political means to react the same way a central government with compliant citizens can.
Just look at the Spring Breakers in Florida - they don't care about social distancing. Neither did the ski tourists in Ischgl and South Tirol where apre ski parties continued until the bodies started dropping (first metaphorically,later literally).
That's a cultural difference that's hard to deny.
South Korea holds regular country wide simulations for pandemics because of SARS and bird flu.
Their last one was 18 months ago and ironically focused on simulating a large scale coronavirus outbreak.
You might be overestimating the cultural differences here compared to plain old preparedness.
This is something that isn't technically possible in Europe and simply doesn't fly with the vast majority of the population. Their strategy is based on policies that just don't work in Europe.
EDIT: also not to forget that South Korea is technically an island with its only land border being the most fortified one in the world...
Another point I forget to mention is mask wearing which certainly is cultural. In Australia and much of the West it's considered not normal whereas no one thinks twice in Asia.
I've seen Australians say they wouldn't wear one even if sick and we've had incidents of people abusing perfectly healthy mask wearers in Sydney demanding they self quarantine.
These attitudes within a society have pretty clear outcomes for anything contagious.