I moved from New York City to Amsterdam and everything you say is completely correct.

If this subject interests you, you should definitely follow these guys: https://www.strongtowns.org/

You might know of them because they coined the word "stroad" to describe those nasty "highways with shops on them" things that are the center of most small American towns: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/3/1/whats-a-stroad-and-why-does-it-matter