I agree with you that the American Bulldog is not a Pit Bull. However, in my experience American Bulldogs tend to be dog aggressive and I cannot understand how a responsible dog owner can allow one to wander unleashed.
As far as Petey from the Little Rascals movies, they (yes there were several) were Colby pits, not American Bulldogs.
Confusion occurs as owners of APBT’s will often refer to their pits as “Bulldogs.”
and for folks like me who don't know better, we call them pits until corrected :)