You're not totally wrong, but it's a bit more nuanced than that. What I see, from living in America and from spending a very small amount of time in Germany, is that in Germany the rules are the rules, whereas in America it is not quite like that. Small companies, especially new ones, employ "better to ask forgiveness than permission" a lot. However, as they grow, they are required to ask forgiveness, and this is given, but then you have to start following rules which are not enforced (usually) on small startups. Some, such as Uber/Lyft, grow so quickly that they can achieve some size before finding out that cities and states can impose requirements on you, but in the end regulation does come for them (perhaps not perfectly, but much more than when they were starting up).

In Germany my impression is more "get your ducks in a row before you startup", which does make sense and has some advantages. I don't even think that it is that much easier to startup in the U.S., if all the rules (tax and otherwise) were enforced all the time. However, because in the U.S. you aren't (usually) as harshly punished for not having your ducks in a regulatory row before starting, the company is able to get big enough to afford accountants, lawyers, etc.

I'm not saying the American "system" here is perfect, or even really a designed system at all, but it does have the effect (normally) of requiring more regulatory compliance as you grow in size, much like we as individuals are allowed to do things when 2 years old that we are sanctioned for if we do them when adults.

All varies a lot by sector, etc. of course, but that's the general trend.