I think that is a good assessment of the broader picture. I have had all of one pizza in Italy, and it wasnt Naples. It was good, but certainly not as good as Una Pizza Napolitano in NY (RIP to that great place by the way) or others in NY. But the thread title did not imply that there were a few places in one country better than another. Most pizza in the US is utter crap. Slop on toast for lack of a better term.

Most food in the US is mediocre, made with crap, semi-real ingredients and loaded with fat and salt to cover the taste. Sure, there are lots of exceptions, it is a big country. But the routine crap that dominates the food landscape here (big box chains and the like) is far inferior to the food landscape in most countries. Even the quality of food in grocery stores seems higher in places like the UK, Japan and France. Those countries have a higher food awareness and expectation than in the US. They are much more likely to use local, fresh ingredients and to care about how it is made and presented. Even at little places.

Interestingly, for those who think I am being condescending, in reading this thread I remember the last time I got into this argument with someone, which was in "real life", sitting at a dinner table. This individual opined that food in the US was better than food in France. I told him that he was "crazy" and suggested that there was something wrong with him. He didnt say I was being condescending, but rather just laughed. We argued about it for quite a while. I was probably unable to convince him that he was wrong. You are in good company with him, being that he is a Nobel Prize winner, but you are still both wrong