Well...in my limited experience with eating Chinese food in the Midwest, I have to agree. There was this place in Kansas City...oh my. But yeah, the locals seemed to be enjoying it, so...
Anyway, living in Taiwan, you should see what passes for "Western food" in many places over here. Scary.
I once went into an "international cuisine" restaurant. Their menu had a page labeled "Mexican Food". The first item on the page was "Buffalo wings". Someone needs a geography lesson.
And hanging out in the food court at Costco over here can be quite entertaining. It is common to see folks cranking out piles of chopped onions, relish, mustard, ketchup, and sauerkraut onto...a slice of pizza. I'm tempted to let them know that they're doing it wrong, but it's too funny to watch. And then you have the old ladies pulling large plastic bags out of their purses, filling them up with chopped onions, then stuffing them back into their bags to take home. Taiwanese love their free stuff. For this reason, you never see self-serve condiment bars at McDonalds. It would be abused.