This does not mean you can continue being a messy unorganized American who waits a week to do the dishes.
True. It is much easier to just throw away the dirty dishes (they did not spark joy). But that starts to get expensive and it was much easier to just eat out of the can, or these days - thankfully - the grocery store makes complete ready to cook healthy whole food single meals oven ready. Only need to own utensils and a coffee cup now
Seriously (I mean that did happen, but) I am guessing whatever her 'giving up' is, is better than all of my best efforts combined.
I'll admit if I have a dinner party that goes till late, I'll often leave the dishes on the table but then move them to the dishwasher first thing in the morning.
Plumbed-in dishwashers are not supposed to have this problem, and I have not found them to. You just have to scrape off any solids into the garbage before putting the dish in. The dishwasher performs better with dirty dishes and you save a lot of water. But I've definitely noticed that some people are very hesitant to just put stuff in the washer, which can result in a pileup at the sink.
Usually what happens is that a pot with nasty stuck-on bits gets put in the sink and filled with water, and then someone trying to rinse off a dish gets put off by the dirty pot and just puts the dish in the sink, and then before you know it you have a sink full of dirty dishes and gross water. My traditional policy to avoid this is to prohibit leaving any dishes in the sink at all, which was my family's rule. Unfortunately, my current roommate comes from a family with the exact opposite rule -- leaving dishes on the counter is forbidden, they must go in the sink.
Being an American means that random people don't get to tell you what you're allowed to do.
That would be random people telling you what you're allowed to do. And it's unamerican.