It’s hard to make an apples-to-oranges comparison, because the nicest parts of foreign cities are often near the downtown core whereas the nicest parts of US cities are usually outside the city limits - edge cities in the suburbs.
Yes....and they are valuing things like Public Transport which European cities have because of their high population density but which American cities either do not have on anything like the scale or which are New York City or San Francisco which have high population density.
Most of my complaints stem from....high population density. I do not like being packed in like a sardine. I like open space. That means like most Americans, I drive a car. That means I want nice convenient parking....another thing European cities do not have in their city centers. Ergo I would repeatedly ding them for things the Economist credits them for and vice versa.
They’re also big fans of socialized medicine and are for gun control. I am once against staunchly against both. Ergo, their ratings are worthless IMO.