I apologize in advance for the off topic tangent I'm about to embark upon:
This "Ugh, it's foreign" phenomenon we experience truely saddens me. At the last show I did I had this young lad, maybe 8 or 9, come racing over to investigate the snow on the layout. I was also doing the delayed magnetic uncoupling at the time. He was enthralled with it. Sat him self down and was just taking it all in.
His mother caught up with him and said quite loudly "Oh, it's American, you won't like that" and began trying to drag the poor boy away. I was stunned. Nearly dropped my tea.
As far as I'm concerned, a layout could be GWR terminus or a sugar cane narrow gauge line, I will still enjoy it for the artistry involved. Good modelling is good modelling, no matter where it is based.
And the more unusual, the better. Perhaps we should start saying "Oh it's another BLT" (tongue very firmly in cheek).
And clearly we are not the only ones as more and more "foreign" layouts are appearing at shows.
Blimey, it's rather windy up here on this soapbox..