Yes, pretty much everything you say is true. There are the wealthier suburbs (Westchester near NYC for example or Pasadena somewhat in LA county), but by a large the way American suburbs and towns are laid out, there is almost never a center and almost wholly depends on the automobile.

I spent most of my life in the US in NYC. I've lived in France, Germany and Switzerland and have traveled almost everywhere else.

France does have the banlieues which can be pretty awful, but generally have some kind of center. And most of the rest of Europe is largely as you describe.

I always have to use the comeback as an excuse for why Americans don't build denser and in a way that gives a center and an identity to a living area: Americans are very selfish and intolerant. A perfectly disastrous combination for living close by others. This may be a chicken and egg situation, too.

And the unfortunate thing is, America has too much land and too little regulation and too little appreciation of what they're destroying and what they're not creating.