If you equate Orthodoxy with Byzantine theology or Byzantine praxis. I think that’s hard to prove considering Northern Europe has been profoundly Augustinian since its conversion.
Although if you are referring to the conciliarist movement then you might have a point.
Central and Eastern Europe were subjected to repeated transfers of authority from East to West and West to East throughout the the Middle Ages. Mistakes were made. People forgotten about in mountain valleys. Once out from under the thumbs of the priests, it was a simple matter to establish functioning congregations without them.
Frontiersmen on the American frontier were in the practice of creating new churches out of nothing. By the early 1800s Scottish immigrants added an intellectual component to the practice and came up with the idea of a Second Century church.