While I never participated in the events programme and manged to LT status through the long and winding road. As a non US resident I agree with the sentiment that MB is a US centric program. However it has slowly moved from this position for instance moving from a LT program based on # years instead of points which is less beneficial to the US based member. Still as been have pointed out a US customer have lot more potential perks.
It is quite surprising that the design of the MB program do not explicitly promote growth outside the US. This might be a deliberate corporate strategy that they don't think that MB will contribute to the ex US growth or that ex US growth is a low priority. Another reason could be that they first aquire the hotels abroad then redesign MB to fit the hotel portfolio.
Whether this is going to be profitable or not time will tell...