I don’t know where this person has been, but I do NOT see the flag everywhere, and I really think that American patriotism is not substantially different from patriotism in many other countries. And I find the “cookie-cutter” homes thing a very tired and boring Leftist refrain. Actually, America has a very wide variety of homes. As far as similarities are concerned, EVERY culture has a dominant style in a particular era.
I’ve been in a lot of major UScities and it is remarkable how similar many of the major business districts and suburbs are. Pretty much complete freedom to travel and mostly universal automobile ownership have produced that. I’m almost 71 and have lived in Chicago, IL, Champaign, IL, Detroit, MI, Milwaukee, WI, and Knoxville, TN. My travels have also covered much of the US.
A handful of contractors and developers will control a region. Then there are the "planned housing developments".
Heck even our "bidding process" on the major sports stadiums in America was a stacked deck, as I understand it, the architects had to meet with league approval (not just in their designs, but come from an approved list of persons).
Many of those observations seem to be dated. America has changed and the expats’ home countries have changed. For example, just about everyone in the cities of India now carries web-enabled cell phones and/or tablets, even the moderately poor.
Virtually every house in England is a brick house (you cannot get insurance for a wood house) and virtually every house in Scotland is a stone house. I didn’t find the sameness an awful burden. I’ve had great times on my visits to Britain without complaining about the sameness of houses.
cf. Pete Seeger's Little Boxes. Man, that song grinds me. I mean, where does he come off ? ... But hey, don't get me goin' !
My son in law’s parents from England actually said the opposite; that they could not believe how different every house was!